It took the Secret Service 4 days to realize that shots had hit the White House

[CountDeMoney]

The hag in charge of the SS has been fired.

Pretty sure that was the only bullet the USSS saw coming a mile away.

[DGuller]

The hag in charge of the SS has been fired.

Pretty sure that was the only bullet the USSS saw coming a mile away.

[Syt]

On the elevator guy. Turns out he's not a felon. And an armed guard at the CDC. Who was assigned to take Obama to and form his meeting. 

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/11/kenneth-tate-elevator-gun-obama/382294/

The Man Who Was Fired for Taking a Photograph of the President

Kenneth Tate, the CDC guard who lost his job after snapping a picture of Obama's motorcade, was labeled a criminal after officials discovered he had ridden an elevator with the commander in chief while armed. Now, Tate is telling his story.

Around this time last month, Americans were treated to a rare sojourn into the land of bipartisan outrage after a series of security lapses forced the resignation of Secret Service Director Julia Pierson. First, there were the revelations that, in 2011, it had taken the Secret Service several days to discover that a man had fired seven bullets into the White House and that a knife-wielding intruder had scaled the White House fence and made it far into the building before being subdued by an off-duty agent.

Hours after Pierson's testimony and hours before her resignation, word spread that a guard with an unauthorized gun had joined President Obama on an elevator at the Center for Disease Control in September. Here's how Representative Jason Chaffetz framed the incident:

"You have a convicted felon within arm's reach of the president, and they never did a background check. Words aren't strong enough for the outrage I feel for the safety of the president and his family."

Reports added that the man had drawn suspicion after taking photos and video of the president and his motorcade, and that when he was fired on the spot he had shocked Secret Service agents by handing over a gun that he was not supposed to be carrying near the president. 

Over the weekend, we learned more about that man. In an interview with The New York Times, Kenneth Tate revealed several things about the brief chain of events that ultimately cost him his job.

First, and most importantly, all talk of Tate being a felon wasn't true. While his arrest record was noted in some reports, he was never convicted. Also contrary to most accounts, Tate had been assigned to tour the president around the CDC facility.

"From the reports, I was some stranger that entered the elevator," he said. "I mean, I was appointed."

While there are still some discrepancies about the chronology of the events, Tate's interview reveals a man—a black Chicago native who deeply admires President Obama, to boot—who minutes after meeting the president, shaking his hand, and briefly exchanging pleasantries, was fired from his job and never given a full explanation why.

I spoke with Tate's lawyer, Christopher Chestnut, who said that Tate's dismissal was a "baseless termination" that he would "continue to investigate and demand answers."

"This cost him everything in his life," Chestnut said, adding that the circumstances of the firing as well as the erroneous labeling of Tate as a felon had branded him with a "scarlet letter."

Of the .40-caliber handgun that Tate carried into the elevator with the president, Chestnut said that the Professional Security Corporation, Tate's employer, "had given him the gun just as they do every morning." While he stopped short of saying whether Tate would pursue a lawsuit against his former employer, Chestnut promised to follow "whatever legal recourse is necessary for justice."

The Times interview inspired a chorus to speak out in support of Tate on Twitter, calling for his job to be restored and also casting blame on those who incorrectly labeled him a felon.

Tate claims he never disobeyed Secret Service directives by getting too close to the presidential motorcade. Two weeks later, during the height of the furor, Tate's son, also a contractor at the CDC, was reportedly laid off in a "downsizing."

[jimmy olsen]

Secret Service is not the only one with problems.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-29784493

Jogger in PM security alert had 'no idea' what happened

A member of the public who caused a security alert when he bumped into David Cameron in Leeds has said he had "no idea" it was the prime minister.

Dean Farley said he was only aware that he had collided with Mr Cameron an hour after he had been arrested by police.

He insisted he was "not particularly political" and was just going out on his daily lunchtime jog to the gym when he ran into a "bunch of men in suits".

Mr Cameron has downplayed the incident, now the subject of a police review.

But former Deputy Prime Minister Lord Prescott, who punched a protester during the 2001 general election campaign after being hit by an egg, said the episode proved that security around top politicians needed to be "tightened up".

And speaking during a parliamentary statement on last week's EU summit, Mr Cameron jokingly made reference to the so-called "Prescott punch".

"I was actually in a meeting in Leeds speaking to a group of city leaders and other politicians and John Prescott was in the room as I gave the speech," he told MPs.

"And as I left the room I thought the moment of maximum danger had probably passed but clearly that wasn't the case."

Mr Cameron said he wanted to put on record the "debt" he owed to those who protect him on a daily basis, saying they did a "very good job".

It comes less than a week after a man threw a bag of marbles at the glass screen which separates the public from MPs in the House of Commons.

That incident took place during Prime Minister's Questions.

[Neil]

I don't get it?  What's the problem there?

[jimmy olsen]

I don't get it?  What's the problem there?

You think security would notice a man running down the street and stop him before running into the PM. If he'd had a knife and will to kill Cameron would have been stabbed.

[Neil]

I don't get it?  What's the problem there?

You think security would notice a man running down the street and stop him before running into the PM. If he'd had a knife and will to kill Cameron would have been stabbed.

But he didn't.  The lone lunatic will always find a way, so rather than behaving like assholes towards everyone, just do the best you can.

[CountDeMoney]

Mongers would've peed on him.

[The Brain]

If I wanted to I could stink up Languish with inane posts. But I don't. BFD.

[Sheilbh]

It comes less than a week after a man threw a bag of marbles at the glass screen which separates the public from MPs in the House of Commons.

[mongers]

I don't get it?  What's the problem there?

You think security would notice a man running down the street and stop him before running into the PM. If he'd had a knife and will to kill Cameron would have been stabbed.

The truth is senior British politicians are vulnerable to attack, but our culture won't allow them to be walled off by steel and guns like the way it is in some other countries. 

For example the day Tony Blair left office, I happened to be passing through Westminster on my way to the Strand, so I stopped to see him depart and then led a Canadian tourist to the other side of the treasury and we and a few dozen other people waited for Gordon Brown to emerge, on his way to see the Queen and become Prime Minister.
So we're all standing there with about a half dozen police and I'm carrying a heavy shoulder bag, as Gordon Brown strides out, stops for photos and to savour the moment. I think he kissed his wife goodbye, though she may not have been there.

But basically I was within 15-20 feet of the future PM with a large un-search bag that could have been carrying 10-15 lbs of explosives, all you'd have to do is take one step forward and detonate a bomb, which would have almost certainly have killed him and a good few others too.
But because I'm white, polite, not an angry type I wasn't a security thread; we all sort of rely on the fact, that even today these nut-jobs and terrorists are a vanishingly small part of our population; security in numbers/by the percentages??

[Sheilbh]

The truth is senior British politicians are vulnerable to attack, but our culture won't allow them to be walled off by steel and guns like the way it is in some other countries. 

And yet look at all the barriers round Parliament

Edit: And there's now a fair bit of security round Downing Street after various IRA attacks like the mortar and the Brighton bombing.

[MadImmortalMan]

Why should they expect to be safer than the rest of the population? Every citizen should be safer than the Home Secretary. 

[mongers]

The truth is senior British politicians are vulnerable to attack, but our culture won't allow them to be walled off by steel and guns like the way it is in some other countries. 

And yet look at all the barriers round Parliament

Edit: And there's now a fair bit of security round Downing Street after various IRA attacks like the mortar and the Brighton bombing.

Those are buildings or institutions if you wish, but not politicians, which was what I was commenting on.
We've had nothing remotely approaching the Presidential motorcade when he's on official business and I'd guess the president moves with quite a lot of security even when on holiday.

[mongers]

Why should they expect to be safer than the rest of the population? Every citizen should be safer than the Home Secretary. 

That's a fair point, though personally I would like to see senior politicians with better personal security, because I think if one of these Jihadi converts got a top political scalp so to speak, it would hand them a massive propaganda coup.