Results 1 to 24 of 24

Thread: Secret Service report: White House needs a taller fence and more, better-trained agents

  1. #1

    Secret Service report: White House needs a taller fence and more, better-trained agents

    Secret Service report: White House needs a taller fence and more, better-trained agents

    The Secret Service has too few agents, with too little training, assigned to patrolling a White House fence that needs to be at least 4 to 5 feet taller than it is to keep out intruders, according to a punishing report from an independent panel of experts.

    The unsparing assessment, commissioned after a fence-jumper at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. got past layers of security and reached deep into the presidential mansion before being stopped, also says that the Secret Service’s next director should come from outside the troubled agency.

    Here are some of the report's key findings, as laid out in an executive summary made public on the Department of Homeland Security’s web site.

    — The fence around the White House — currently only 7½ feet high — needs to be taller. Much taller.

    “Even an increase of four or five feet would be materially helpful,” the report notes. The experts urged the removal of horizontal bars “where climbers can easily place feet or hands.” The top of the new fence could be modified to make it harder “for most” to scale it, such as by having it curve outward. Those changes “can be made without diminishing the aesthetic beauty or historic character” of the White House.

    — The Secret Service needs more agents. Many more.

    The report declares that Secret Service personnel who protect the White House “work an unsustainable number of hours.” Rather than remedy the problem by better use of agents or better management of those serving, “the Service simply adds more overtime for existing personnel.”

    How deep is the shortfall? The report says that the Uniformed Division needs to add at least 200 officers, while at least 85 new special agents are needed. “The Panel believes this is a first step, but likely not the last step, to ensure adequate training and personnel for the White House,” it says.

    — … and better training. A lot more.

    Secret Service training “has diminished far below acceptable levels,” the report warns. Previously, the presidential protective detail — the agents most frequently portrayed in Hollywood — could count on training for two weeks out of every eight. Over the whole of fiscal year 2013, “apart from firearms re-qualifications and basic career development technical requirements, the average special agent received only forty-two-hours of training,” the report said.

    The Uniformed Division as a whole did 576 hours of training over the same period, the report says, noting that this amounts to “about 25 minutes for each of over 1300 Uniformed Division officers.”

    Training should put agents in “conditions that replicate the physical environment in which they will operate” so that they are “intimately familiar with the space” in which they will work — implicitly suggesting that current training does not do so.

    — The Secret Service should work with similar agencies from overseas.

    A somewhat cryptic passage in the executive summary suggests that the Secret Service stopped working with allied nation agencies whose job roughly resembles their own — perhaps like Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security agency.

    The Secret Service should “resume participation in international fora with comparable protective services of friendly nations,” the report proposes. “While most national protective forces do not compare to the Secret Service, those of certain nations are much more similar than they are different.”

    — The Secret Service’s new director should be someone from outside the agency.

    Members of the U.S. Secret Service counter assault team (CAT) stand atop the West Wing of the White …
    Former director Julia Pierson’s resignation Oct. 1 left a void filled by an acting director, Joseph Clancy. The report noted that many insiders believe only someone who has served inside the agency can lead it.

    “The Panel appreciates the virtue of experience in the Service, but we believe that at this time in the agency's history, the need for Service experience is outweighed by what the Service needs today: dynamic leadership that can move the Service forward into a new era and drive change in the organization,” the summary says.

    “Only a director from outside the Service, removed from organizational traditions and personal relationships, will be able to do the honest top-to-bottom reassessment this will require,” it says.

    — Discipline must be fair.

    The Secret Service must “implement a disciplinary system in a consistent manner that demonstrates zero tolerance for failures that are incompatible with its zero-failure mission,” the report says. “It is clear that the rank-and-file —and even very senior current and former members of the Secret Service — do not have confidence that discipline is imposed in a fair and consistent manner.”

    DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson commended the panel for offering recommendations that are “astute, thorough and fair.” But many will be subject to congressional scrutiny, making the future of Secret Service reform uncertain.

    In the meantime, visitors to the White House can watch as engineers and construction workers move the fence a few feet outward from its previous perimeter.
    https://news.yahoo.com/secret-servic...220517957.html



  2. Remove this section of ads by registering.
  3. #2
    Nothing says freedom like fencing!



    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	pict105.jpg 
Views:	0 
Size:	189.7 KB 
ID:	3536

  4. #3
    The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.

  5. #4
    Just shoot a few more unarmed, single mothers with their baby.

    Us mundanes will get the message.

  6. #5

    'We endorse the idea of voluntarism; self-responsibility: Family, friends, and churches to solve problems, rather than saying that some monolithic government is going to make you take care of yourself and be a better person. It's a preposterous notion: It never worked, it never will. The government can't make you a better person; it can't make you follow good habits.' - Ron Paul 1988

    Awareness is the Root of Liberation Revolution is Action upon Revelation

    'Resistance and Disobedience in Economic Activity is the Most Moral Human Action Possible' - SEK3

    Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo.

    ...the familiar ritual of institutional self-absolution...
    ...for protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment...


  7. #6
    There's a pbs doc on the history of the whitehouse, a 100 years ago, you could have picnics on the lawn and walk right in if you wanted to. I guess the whole taxing everyone into oblivion thing sort ruined the good feelings along the way. Now, it's the Masta's house, instead of the peoples.

  8. #7
    Fortifying yourself from the public whom elected you does not help alleviate the mistrust of government. How can they not take this into consideration? Insurmountable fencing sends a very different message to those who walk down 1600.

    This is a bad idea and not thought out by PR. Let's see if it happens. It will tell a lot.

  9. #8
    In the meantime, visitors to the White House can watch as engineers and construction workers move the fence a few feet outward from its previous perimeter.
    Why are they moving the fence?



  10. Remove this section of ads by registering.
  11. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Suzanimal View Post
    Why are they moving the fence?
    To open up a larger "kill zone" between the outer wall of the castle and The Massa's House.

  12. #10
    So did Caesar, Hitler, Mao, and Stalin... kinda tells you what's wrong with government and the so-called fearless leaders.

    The more layers of security and armies, greater the oppression and tyranny... that has been proven true for two thousand of years of planet earth.
    The American Dream, Wake Up People, This is our country! <===click

    "All eyes are opened, or opening to the rights of man, let the annual return of this day(July 4th), forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them."
    Thomas Jefferson
    June 1826



    Rock The World!
    USAF Veteran

  13. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Suzanimal View Post
    Why are they moving the fence?
    They're preparing. They're adding new security checkpoints, taller fences, more SS officers (no pun intended), etc. All to keep the People away from the WH whenever "it" happens. Whatever the media and gov't says they're doing for a certain reason is always for a different reason that they can't openly say.
    "Let it not be said that we did nothing."-Ron Paul

    "We have set them on the hobby-horse of an idea about the absorption of individuality by the symbolic unit of COLLECTIVISM. They have never yet and they never will have the sense to reflect that this hobby-horse is a manifest violation of the most important law of nature, which has established from the very creation of the world one unit unlike another and precisely for the purpose of instituting individuality."- A Quote From Some Old Book

  14. #12
    Good fences make good neighbors

    All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the State.
    -Albert Camus

  15. #13
    If the president did nothing wrong, what does he have to be afraid of?

  16. #14
    We need a good FREEDOM FENCE, like this.




    And if you don't like it, you must be a terrorist.

  17. #15
    Sounds like maybe the White House folks just may have some ideas and plans to tick off a whole bunch more folks.

  18. #16
    Does this "consultant" own a fence company?

    Have they ever heard of this sport called pole vaulting?

    Remove the structural horizontal support - aka steps. That aught to make the vertical elements much more flexible. Small hydrolic car jack?, a come along?, BYO ladder or grappling hook with knotted rope?, thermal lance or pre-prepared thermite charges?, go to a gym and hire a guy that likes to bench press, have them squat, interlock their fingers and stand up when your foot meets their hands.

    How much of OUR money did they pay for this study?

    No, going medieval is the only way. 40' castle walls, vats of boiling oil, watch towers, alligator filled moat with drawbridge.

    Where do I send the invoice for the consultation?

    -t



  19. Remove this section of ads by registering.
  20. #17
    The fence around the White House — currently only 7½ feet high — needs to be taller. Much taller
    Wait a second! In most cities, the zoning ordinance limits the height of a fence to 6 feet unless the property is zoned for commercial or industrial use, and I'm pretty sure that DC is no exception to this. Was this fence constructed before DC ever had a zoning ordinance (and is thus grandfathered in)? Or did they happen to obtain a variance? If they extend the height of the fence, they will have to obtain a (or an additional) variance. This will require a hearing in front of the zoning board, open to the public, at which any member of the public will be able to contest the issuance of a variance! And of course if this is not done, that will violate the Constitution's equal protection clause.
    I have an autographed copy of Revolution: A Manifesto for sale. Mint condition, inquire within. (I don't sign in often, so please allow plenty of time for a response)

  21. #18
    So let me get this straight .. 'More spending with less government accountability'?

    'Let US come in, that is; unless you have something to hide?'

  22. #19
    Bring in the killer Dobermans and Rotweilers.

  23. #20
    Freedom Fencing...oh please, let that become a "thing".

    Quote Originally Posted by Mani View Post
    We need a good FREEDOM FENCE, like this.




    And if you don't like it, you must be a terrorist.

  24. #21
    Oversight wants briefing on WH fence
    Incoming House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), are demanding a briefing on the Secret Service's plans to raise the height of the White House fence.

    “Designers of the new fence must balance security concerns with the long and storied tradition of the White House being the ‘People’s House,” the two wrote in a joint letter Monday to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.


    “These historical, symbolic, and aesthetic factors deserve consideration, but ultimately they should not be permitted to delay or prevent a fence that could save lives.”
    Their call comes a week after a Department of Homeland Security panel recommended a slew of changes to Secret Service protocol after an incident where an armed man jumped the White House fence and made it into the building.

    One suggestion included raising the height of the fence to deter “pranksters” and impede more serious threats.

    The lawmakers said they agreed with the panel's recommendations about the fence and that a number of “common-sense improvements should be explored."

    The panel’s recommendations included removing horizontal bars that could make climbing the fence easier as well as curving the top of the fence away from the White House to make it harder to jump over the top.

    Outside of changes to the fence’s construction, the panel also called for a new outside director for the Secret Service and changes to its training and hiring programs meant to combat an “insular” culture.

    http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefi...on-white-house

  25. #22
    Forgotten Witness and the Lie of “Ramming the Gate” at the White House

    October 7, 2013

    Lost in all the bull$#@! and disinformation floating around this story is the simple fact that the MSM has been lying since the beginning. Miriam Carey’s car did not suffer any damage consistent with their story that she “rammed the gates” at the White House as I have already proven in an earlier report.
    The fact is, there is no “gate” at that entrance that I can see and the story is directly contradicted by the one independent witness who came forward and spoke with the media about that initial and all important confrontation between Secret Service and the woman they gunned down in cold blood not 20 minutes later.

    The witness, Shawn Joseph, told a very different story than the one that is the mainstay of the Vichy press operating in America:
    “It began with something not that unusual — a driver with out-of-state plates turning into a blocked entry near the White House.
    It quickly became something else.
    “Whoa! Whoa!,” Secret Service officers were shouting at the car, according to a witness, Shawn Joseph, 29. “It looked liked [the driver was] scared or lost. I thought they might have been a tourist.”
    But then, witnesses said, officers tried to place a barrier in front of the car. The driver swerved. The officers moved the barrier. She hit it, and a Secret Service officer was thrown up on the hood and then off the car.
    The officer was not badly hurt. The driver sped east and was stopped by police at a small traffic circle at the foot of Capitol Hill. There, video shot by the U.S.-funded Arabic TV station Alhurra shows officers with guns pointed at the car. The driver took off.” Washington Post
    Seems to me from what this witness said, they may have been trying to prevent her from leaving, as opposed to keeping her from entering the grounds of the White House.
    The “temporary barricade” all the MSM venues mention, is one of those bike racks sitting there in the photo above.
    You would think that Shawn Joseph would be the most sought after witness in this entire affair. But you would be wrong.

  26. #23
    7" death spikes being added to WH perimeter fence. Outward facing.

    http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/28/politi...pike-upgrades/

    Washington (CNN)
    Secret Service and National Park Service officials are prepping for upgrades to the White House fence after several embarrassing security lapses in recent months.

    Authorities are preparing to add 7-inch steel spikes to the top of the fence to deter climbers.
    "Let it not be said that we did nothing."-Ron Paul

    "We have set them on the hobby-horse of an idea about the absorption of individuality by the symbolic unit of COLLECTIVISM. They have never yet and they never will have the sense to reflect that this hobby-horse is a manifest violation of the most important law of nature, which has established from the very creation of the world one unit unlike another and precisely for the purpose of instituting individuality."- A Quote From Some Old Book

  27. #24
    Why not add a moat and fill it with sharks that have lasers strapped to their heads while they're at it?



  28. Remove this section of ads by registering.


Similar Threads

  1. Lawmakers say Secret Service running out of agents
    By Suzanimal in forum U.S. Political News
    Replies: 20
    Last Post: 04-21-2016, 04:11 PM
  2. Report: 65 Secret Service Agents on Hand for Hillary Clinton's Paid Speech
    By enhanced_deficit in forum U.S. Political News
    Replies: 6
    Last Post: 03-05-2015, 10:27 AM
  3. IG: DEA agents pimped for Secret Service in Colombia
    By sailingaway in forum U.S. Political News
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 01-11-2013, 11:28 AM
  4. Replies: 12
    Last Post: 05-04-2009, 11:23 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •