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| Omar Gonzalez being taken into custody |
Omar Gonzalez, the man seen entering the White House in the video above, is a veteran of the U.S. Army. He did a tour in Iraq, where he spent 15 months from October 2006 to January 2008. He was awarded several medals for his service, including three Army Commendation Medals and an Expert Marksmanship Badge. Imagine that - a trained expert marksman able to waltz right into the foyer of the White House unobstructed. (Speaking of OBSTRUCTION - where were House and Senate Republicans when they were NEEDED? The one time obstruction could have come in handy in Washington, they were nowhere to be found.) Gonzalez retired from the Army due to medical reasons and did receive an honorable discharge. Although the Army wouldn't disclose the medical reasons Gonzalez retired from the Army, citing confidentiality clauses, Gonzalez apparently suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) according to his ex-wife, Samantha Murphy Bell. In an affidavit filed after Gonzalez was taken into custody, he allegedly told a Secret Service Agent that "the atmosphere was collapsing and needed to get the information to the president of the United States so that he could get the word out to the people." His ex-wife said in an interview with NBC News (Ex-Wife of White House Intruder Omar Gonzalez Says He Needs Help) that he needs help. YA THINK? Gonzalez had a knife on him when he was arrested in the White House. Gonzalez also had two hatchets, a machete and 800 rounds of ammunition in his vehicle parked near the White House. The Secret Service said Gonzalez was not shot during his mad dash to the door because he didn't have a visible weapon and he wasn't wearing clothing that could conceal any weapons. WHAT? Again, the guy had a knife on him. What would justify deadly force by the Secret Service? Fortunately, President Obama and his family had just left the White House just minutes before this major security breach.
Which brings me back to the original question: WHERE was the Secret Service when Omar Gonzalez jumped the fence? The American people have been led to believe the White House is so heavily guarded that within mere seconds of the slightest security breach, agents - uniformed and otherwise - would be swarming all over the place and that any and all hostile parties would be neutralized immediately. Apparently, that is not the case at all. It is no secret that Barack Obama, the first African-American elected President of the United States, has been and continues to be the most threatened president in history. The Secret Service receives no less than 30 credible death threats against President Obama each and every day. How Omar Gonzalez was allowed anywhere near Washington, D.C., let alone be able to let himself in the front door where President Obama lives and works is more than troubling. Gonzalez was arrested in July of this year by Virginia State Police after police found another cache of weapons that included a sawed off shotgun, a sniper's rifle and five handguns. Police also found a map of Washington, D.C. with a line drawn to the White House inside of a Bible. Gonzalez CLEARLY should have been on a high risk watch by the Secret Service. The fact that he wasn't and was allowed to get within 10 miles of the White House is more than disturbing. It is both unacceptable and inexcusable.
This is not the first time the Secret Service has allowed unauthorized personnel to get within close proximity of President Obama in the White House. In November 2009, an uninvited couple slipped through two security checks and crashed a White House state dinner held for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Strangely enough, there were no arrests made in this breach (2009 U.S. state dinner security breaches).
In an incident I have firsthand knowledge of, President Obama visited St. Louis in March of 2010 and gave a speech at the Renaissance Grand Hotel, which is directly across the street from the office building I worked in at the time. The motorcade passed directly by the entrance of the building I worked in and I videotaped the motorcade on the phone I had at the time. Of course, I can't locate the video at the time of this writing. There were a couple of things strange about that day. The first thing was, there was nothing except the metal parade barriers separating the crowd from the motorcade. No Secret Service, no police - NOTHING. If anyone had chosen to, they could have walked unobstructed up to the motorcade. Another thing that was strange was the gathering of anti-Obama protestors who not only were allowed to get close to the motorcade, but were allowed to gather at the door of the hotel. What was strange about it was when President George W. Bush was subject to protests as a result of his decision to invade Iraq under false pretenses, protestors were not allowed to be anywhere near his motorcade, let alone be allowed to park at the venue where he was appearing. The disparate security arrangements jumped out at me immediately. I was doing a weekly politically based radio talk show at the time in the St. Louis market and contacted the Secret Service to ask if a representative could come on my radio show and answer some questions I had about the disparate arrangements. To my surprise, I actually got a return call from an agent. He did not come on my show, but he did insist there was no disparate security provided. The agent was African-American and he sensed where my line of questioning was going. I emphatically told him that I was aware that he could not say there were disparate arrangements, but he could not persuade me to deny what I had seen directly when it came to President Obama compared to what I had seen when George W. Bush was president.
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| Julia Pierson |
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| Jeh Johnson |
Something went terribly wrong at the White House on September 19. A deranged man armed with a knife was able to gain access to the White House through the front door. Something like this can NEVER happen again.
WHERE was the Secret Service when Omar Gonzalez jumped the fence?
Peace, peace.
Craig Riggins
Email: therigginsreport517@gmail.com
Facebook: The Riggins Report
Twitter: @CraigRiggins
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