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Mobhare Matinyi, Washington DC;
The Citizen, Tanzania, Friday 20 April 2012.
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The American
people are still struggling to come to terms with what happened in Colombia
on the eve of President Barack Obama’s official visit when several members of
the elite security detail engaged in unprofessional behavior, perhaps
mortgaging the life of their leader.
So far the report from Washington circles and the press put the number of the
suspected culprits at 21, that is, eleven protection agents and ten military
service members who were part of an advance team that landed in Colombia
ahead of Obama’s visit over the weekend for the Summit of the Americas.
The 21 highly trained and well-paid individuals responsible for the security
of the most powerful president on earth, allegedly “imported” as many as 21
prostitutes into a hotel in Cartagena, not far from where Obama was booked to
stay. Why and how they committed such a blunder remains a mystery, but some
observers posit that this could not have been the first time.
Investigators from the Secret Service's Office of Professional Responsibility
have been dispatched to Cartagena to interview witnesses, and at least some
of the agents have undergone polygraph examinations, thorough interviews and
at least three were gone by Wednesday, a typical fallout in any scandal in
the United States. The Pentagon, the official employer of the military
personnel, is also sending its own team to see and hear for themselves.
But what was the problem, considering that these were adult men, hiding in
hotel rooms and the fact that prostitution is legal in Colombia? In fact, the
mayor of Cartagena, where the scandal took place, is still marvelled as to
why Americans are making a big fuss out of this seemingly normal occurrence
in what some people refer to as "the land of cocaine"?
Firstly, based on what the Secret Service director, Mark Sullivan, told the
US Congress, no stranger was allowed access to the rooms of either of the
members of the advanced team, whether a prostitute or otherwise. Those rooms
were designated as “secured premises” and thus, access required top-level
clearance by the US government which a foreigner cannot obtain, let alone a
foreign prostitute.
Secondly, it is a well-known fact that in the spy world, prostitutes make the
best hook to catch an enemy, steal secrets, compromise a target, or even kill
the targeted person or their associate. Now, how could the American security
experts be so careless while knowing for sure that Colombia is flooded with
drag barons who hate the US Government because it always hunts them?
To make the matter worse, the American security agents, either all or some of
them, seemed to have been drinking with these women somewhere in the vicinity
of the hotel, which makes the matter even worse. Could someone have poisoned
them? Probably! Could they have misbehaved after consuming too much alcohol?
Perhaps!
Listing all the risks the Americans faced on that fateful night could be an
interesting academic exercise, but the bottom line remains that, they
endangered the life of the most protected person in the world. People who
were supposed to be smart, vigilant and cautious became quite the opposite of
that. I hope they are all single.
President Obama, speaking in Washington upon his return, promised to be angry
if the scandal is proven right and affirmed his confidence over the Secret
Service boss, Sullivan. Could this hurt his presidential campaign? Only time
will tell, but at least for the moment Congress is on the side of the
president.
His statement was clear on why the incident is being taken so seriously:
"We're representing the people of the United States and when we travel
to another country, I expect us to observe the highest standards, because
we're not just representing ourselves, we're here on behalf of our
people."
In its 235 years of independence America has lost four presidents to
assassinations, and another 20 attempts to kill sitting and former presidents
have failed. Two presidents have been injured in a plot to kill them
including Ronald Reagan in 1984. As of recent, while visiting Georgia in
2005, President George Bush escaped a distant grenade attack when it failed
to explode before ducking two shoes in an attack during a Baghdad press
conference in 2008.
Yes, Americans have messed up, but there is a lesson to be learnt here,
especially by countries which often bury scandals committed by their
officials no matter how serious they are. According to the Secret Service
assistant director for investigation, Paul Morrissey, immediately after the
scandal was uncovered the eleven agents were immediately sent home and put on
administrative leave.
That’s how responsible governments ought to behave. Yes, these agents are not
senior officials, but are very sensitive officials, however, that still
didn’t help them. Could that happen in Africa? Not sure!
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