Wednesday, October 01, 2014

Julia Pierson, Director of the Secret Service, whose mission it is to protect the life of the President of the United States has resigned. On Ms. Pierson's watch Omar Gonzalez climbed over a fence, ran, while armed, across the entirety of the lawn in front of the White House, entered the front door and and made it deep into the mansion's first floor. Several layers of security failed there, all caused by Pierson's colleagues. They were failures so manifold, so serious that they were viewed correctly as systemic Secret Service failures. Pierson had charge of that system and she had to go. But she may not have had she not performed so poorly as a witness before the congressional committee investigating the Gonzalez intrusion. Her agency first gave different accounts of the intrusion which were false, first that Gonzalez was stopped inside the front door by a guard, then that the front door guard, inexplicably, was not inside the door, then that he was but was overpowered by Gonzalez; first that Gonzalez did not have a weapon in his hands, then that he had a serrated knife. That Gonzalez made it into the Green Room of the White House was leaked to the press, not offered by Ms. Pierson.  Before the House committee Pearson outraged congressmen with her pro forma acceptance of ultimate responsibility while still defending her agency. It was done so unemotionally so pro forma that it outraged the committee members, of both parties. That part of America that is the Secret Service, and that is a pretty important part, does not work. It did not work under the previous director. The problems truly are systemic and that means getting rid of more than the Director. Maybe this Secret Service should not exist anymore; call for everyone's resignation build the whole thing up again anew. Let other federal law enforcement handle presidential security until the "new" Secret Service is ready to go.