The Pentagon is investigating 10 U.S. military members in a widening probe into whether an advance team of Secret Service and military personnel hired local prostitutes or engaged in other misconduct before President Obama visited Colombia for a summit last week, U.S. officials said.
The Pentagon investigation is focusing on five Special Forces Army soldiers, two Marines, two Navy personnel and one member of the Air Force, a U.S. military official said. The Navy and Air Force personnel are members of explosive detection unit, the official said.
Authorities originally said only five service members were under investigation but later widened the inquiry after a preliminary probe by a military officer from the U.S. Embassy in Bogota found that more people may have been involved, officials said.
At least five of the 10 military personnel are on their way back to the United States, and a U.S. military colonel is en route to Cartagena to supervise the Pentagon portion of the investigation.
Senior officials admitted Monday that the scandal has embarrassed the White House, the Secret Service and the Pentagon.
“We let the boss down,” Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon news conference Monday, referring to Obama. “I can speak for myself and my fellow chiefs: We’re embarrassed by what occurred in Colombia, though we’re not sure exactly what it is.”
All 10 of the service members were staying at the Cartagena hotel, along with 11 Secret Service agents are suspected of cavorting with prostitutes.
More military personnel might have been involved in misconduct before Obama’s trip
Washington Post, By David Nakamura & Scott Wilson, April 16
A probe into the alleged misconduct of nearly a dozen U.S. Secret Service agents has expanded to include more than five military personnel, Defense Department officials said Monday, as the scandal that erupted during President Obama’s trip to Colombia last week put high-level officials on the defensive.
A preliminary investigation by the Defense Department, which included a review of video from hotel security cameras, found that more military personnel than initially thought might have been involved with the Secret Service in the carousing at the center of the probe. Already, 11 Secret Service agents have been placed on leave amid allegations they entertained prostitutes, potentially one of the most serious lapses at the organization in years.
The charges are triggering scrutiny of the culture of the Secret Service where married agents have been heard to joke during aircraft takeoff that their motto is ”wheels up, rings off” and raising new questions at both the agency and the Pentagon about institutional oversight at the highest levels of the president’s security apparatus.
”œWe are embarrassed,” Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in a briefing at the Pentagon. ”We let the boss down, because nobody is talking about what went down in Colombia other than this incident.”
[...]
Even though Secret Service officials have said Obama’s security was not compromised, lawmakers who oversee the agency have grown increasingly outraged as new allegations surface.
”I find this to be so appalling,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. ”I can’t help but think, what if the women involved had been spies? It’s such a breach of trust, and it’s virtually unbelievable. I’m truly shocked.”
BBC, April 19
A woman at the centre of the US prostitution scandal in Colombia asked for $800 (£500) to spend the night with a US agent, the New York Times reports.
The woman – who describes herself as an escort, not a prostitute – told the paper the agent reneged on their deal, instead offering only $30.
That sparked a row that blew the lid off a night that saw 20 women taken back to the hotel in Cartagena.
Three Secret Service staff are leaving the agency in the wake of the incident.
One supervisor was sacked, one retired and a more junior employee resigned, the agency’s assistant director said on Tuesday.
New York Times: Woman Recounts Quarrel Leading to Agent Scandal, April 18
New York Times: U.S. Expands Inquiry of Suspected Misconduct by Agents in Colombia, April 19
New York Times “Room For Discussion” : Is Prostitution Safer When It’s Legal?
brought forth an old article and discussion from 2004 about legal German prostitution and military troops.
link
While we were stationed near Nurenburg I was a bit amazed to see the women literally hanging their wares out the window sills of “The Wall’. The cops pushed us a long and said it was best for women not to walk in this area. It angered the prostitutes.
Always keep an open mind and a compassionate heart. ~ Phil Jackson
According to the EU trafficking and forced prostitution are on the rise.
Lawyer Birgit Thoma, who works for Solwodi, or Solidarity with Women in Distress says that foreigners make up some 70 percent of people in Germany’s sex trade.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) lists Germany as one of the most common destinations for victims of human trafficking.
“OTP – Occupy The Patriarchy” ~ me
Colombia probes whether women in Secret Service sex scandal were under age
McClatchy, By Alfonso Chardy, April 19
CARTAGENA, Colombia — Colombian authorities have opened a preliminary investigation into the U.S. Secret Service prostitution scandal out of concern that underage women might have been involved, a Colombian government official told McClatchy on Friday.
Investigators from the Colombian attorney general’s office have talked with employees of the hotel where the Secret Service agents were staying and have also questioned the taxi driver who drove home the woman whose complaint about not being adequately paid triggered the scandal, the official said. The official was not authorized to discuss the investigation and asked not to be indentified by name.
Police also went to at least one of the adult entertainment clubs linked to the scandal to verify the ages of the women who worked there, a club employee said.
The Colombian probe into the ages of the women for the first time raises the possibility that some of the 21 Americans tied to the scandal _ 11 Secret Service agents and 10 members of the U.S. military _ could face criminal charges in Colombia, and not just ethics complaints within their agencies in the United States. While sex for pay is legal between adults in Colombia, inducing a minor to engage in prostitution is illegal, the official said. As many as 21 women may have provided sexual services to the visiting Americans.
Secret Service sex scandal: Several say they didn’t break the rules
Washington Post, By Carol D. Leonnig and David Nakamura, May 22
Four Secret Service employees have decided to fight their dismissals for engaging in inappropriate conduct in Colombia last month, a development that could unravel what has been a swift and tidy resolution to an embarrassing scandal over agents’ hiring of prostitutes.
The agents are arguing that the agency is making them scapegoats for behavior that the Secret Service has long tolerated, a charge that Director Mark Sullivan may have to address when he appears before a Senate committee Wednesday. He has not spoken in public about the controversy, but according to his prepared testimony, he plans to tell Congress that there was no breach of operational security.
[...]
According to interviews with multiple former and current employees and people briefed on the inquiry, the Secret Service agents involved brought women to their hotel rooms without hesiÂtaÂtion. The agency says it was clear that employees should not do anything unbecoming of a Secret Service employee. Current and former agency employees say sexual encounters during official travel had been condoned under an unwritten code that allows what happens on the road to stay there.
They also contend that this tolerance is part of the “Secret Circus†— a mocking nickname that some employees use to describe what ensues when large numbers of agents and officers arrive in a city.
Assures Senate committee that Colombia affair was an isolated event, not evidence a poisoned culture.
US News and World Report, By Lauren Fox, May 23
Denying that the Secret Service has long condoned a culture of misconduct, Director Mike Sullivan insisted Wednesday during a Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs hearing that the scandalous sexual romp by agents in Cartagena, Colombia, is not evidence of an agency that is out of control.
“The Secret Service has five core values: justice, duty, courage, honesty, and loyalty,” Sullivan said. “The overwhelming majority of the men and women who serve in this agency exemplify these values…Clearly, the misconduct that took place on April 11, 2012 in Cartagena, Colombia is not representative of these values or of the high ethical standards we demand from our almost 7,000 employees.”
Sullivan formally apologized for the unethical conduct that occurred on his watch in Colombia and promised the incident was an isolated one.
“These individuals did some really dumb things,” Sullivan said.
But the explanation was insufficient for legislators, who grilled Sullivan for an explanation of how multiple groups of Secret Service agents assigned to protect President Obama during his trip to Colombia could get away with bringing prostitutes to the El Caribe hotel if this was not a part of the agency’s accepted culture.
“It’s hard for many people, including me, I’ll admit, to believe that on one night in April 12 2012, in Cartagena, Colombia, 11 Secret Service agents–there to protect the president–suddenly and spontaneously did something they or other agents have never done before,” said committee Chairman and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman.
Maine Sen. Susan Collins, ranking committee member, said she was increasingly troubled that when Secret Service agents checked back into the Cartagena hotel after a night on the town, they gave their real names and the names of the women to hotel staff, making no secret of what they were doing.
“From my perspective, when you combine the facts of this case,” Collins said, “the fact that agents made no attempt to conceal their identity [despite] the fact they were bringing these women back to their hotel rooms; a survey in which fewer than 60 percent of the Secret Service personnel said they would report ethical misconduct; the fact that this wasn’t, as I said in my opening statement, a group of individuals that just got swept up in a situation, but rather smaller groups that engaged in the same kinds of misconduct–to me that just spells a broader problem of culture in the agency.”
(Latino) Fox News, May 23
Washington – The lawmaker leading a probe into the Secret Service prostitution scandal said Wednesday that the agency’s records indicate agents have been involved in dozens of “troubling” episodes in recent years.
“We can only know what the records of the Secret Service reveal,” Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman said in opening the first Senate hearing into the matter. And those records, however incomplete, show 64 instances of allegations or complaints of sexual misconduct made against Secret Service employees in the last five years, he said.
Lieberman called on insiders to come forward with what they know, as investigators try to determine whether a culture of misconduct has taken root in the storied agency.
Go get ‘em, Holy Joe!
Third supervisor was involved in Secret Service scandal in Colombia
Washington Post, By Carol D. Leonnig & David Nakamura, June 15
A Secret Service employee implicated in the agency’s prostitution scandal in Cartagena, Colombia, this year was a supervisor with security information about President Obama’s visit there.
Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan, whose agency has confirmed the involvement of the supervisor, delayed two weeks before disclosing that information to congressional oversight committees in the wake of the public revelations about the scandal, according to a timeline provided by Sullivan’s office and a member of Congress briefed by the director.
Also, while publicly testifying about the incident late last month, Sullivan did not disclose that the additional agency employee implicated in the controversy was a supervisor and had access to security information about the visit. Sullivan later urged lawmakers not to make that information public, a transcript of his testimony shows. An agency official briefed on the probe said the director delayed providing that information to protect possible undercover agents.
On Friday, the Associated Press ["Secret Service director apologizes as senators detail new misconduct allegations"] released a list of formal misconduct allegations made about Secret Service staff since 2004. The list, heavily redacted complaints made to the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general [2.73 MB, 229-page PDF], included allegations that staff had solicited prostitutes, been involved in sexual assaults, leaked sensitive information, published pornography, improperly used weapons and engaged in drunken behavior.
One anonymous complaint in 2011 asked the inspector general to investigate allegations that Sullivan had ordered that a contract worth millions of dollars be awarded to a specific contractor without competition.
“The procurement staff was allegedly warned ‘not to interfere’ after questioning the award,†the documents report.
Also, Sydney Morning Herald: Reporting for booty: Secret Service log reveals boozey misconduct, following prostitution claims
Report to be publshed as seven soldiers and two marines will not face criminal charges for role in Colombian prostitute incident
Karen McVeigh in New York
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 18 July 2012 17.22 EDT
Nine US servicemen are to receive administrative punishments, but will escape criminal charges, for their role in the secret service Columbia prostitutes scandal.
A military official told the Guardian that an official report would be published soon, and confirmed reports by the Associated Press about the disciplinary action.
Seven of those facing the administrative punishments are soldiers and two are marines. US officials said that, in addition, one member of the air force has been reprimanded. Two navy seals are still awaiting a final decision.
Lt Col DL Wright, of US Southern Command said a redacted version of a report on the military investigation is due to be published in the next two weeks. The military does not publicly disclose details of administrative punishments, which can range from the docking of pay to confining personnel to quarters. In some cases, it can delay or prevent promotions.
The investigation was ordered after it emerged that military personnel had been implicated in the April incident in which secret service agents were accused of taking prostitutes back to their hotel rooms ahead of a presidential visit. The scandal tainted the agency’s reputation and led to several investigations and questions over its culture.
US Southern Command, headed by General Douglas Fraser, carried out the investigation into the role played by the 12 members of the military in the incident.
The servicemen were assigned to support the secret service in advance of President Barack Obama’s official visit to Columbia for a Summit of the Americas. None were involved directly in presidential security.
A dozen secret service agents were implicated in the scandal and eight of them, including two supervisors, have been forced out of the agency. Three were cleared of serious misconduct and at least two are fighting against their dismissal.
The misconduct allegations emerged after reports of a fight over payment between one of the prostitutes and a Secret Service agent at a hotel in Cartagena.
Defense lawyer accuses FBI agent of paying for Philippine prostitutes during weapons probe
AP, September 24
Los Angeles — An undercover FBI agent has been accused in court documents of spending U.S. taxpayer dollars on prostitutes in the Philippines for himself and others during an international weapons trafficking probe last year.
Deputy Federal Public Defender John Littrell filed a motion last week asking a judge to toss an indictment against his client, Sergio Santiago Syjuco, for “outrageous government misconduct.” Syjuco, 25, and two other Philippine nationals have been charged with conspiracy and face up to 20 years in prison.
The agent, who wasn’t identified in court documents, paid up to $2,400 each time he went to brothels with Syjuco and others to reward them for their work to secure weapons to ship to the U.S. without a license, court documents show.
“I have never seen anything like this during my career as a criminal defense lawyer,” Littrell told The Associated Press on Monday. “I hope that the Department of Justice takes these allegations seriously, does a complete investigation, and ensures that whoever authorized this outrageous misconduct is held accountable.”
FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller declined comment Monday, but federal prosecutors acknowledged in court documents that the agent sought nearly $15,000 in reimbursements for “entertainment” and other expenses related to the investigation. The prosecutors said they don’t have any receipts from the clubs, but two of them listed in the filing, “Air Force One” and “Area 51,” are suspected brothels.