Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com
Time for the
Secret Service to be Reformed
One wonders if the Secret Service has become a Streltsy,
a palace guard answerable to no one.
Not so long ago the Secret Service was one of the most
honored organizations in the United States, and had earned that respect through
duty and sacrifice.
The Secret Service, so secret that it has its own
website: (Home | United States Secret Service),
is tasked with ensuring “…the safety of the president, the vice president,
their families, the White House, the vice president’s residence, visiting
foreign heads of state, former United States presidents and their spouses, and
events of national significance” (ibid).
The Secret Service is also involved in national security,
public safety, protecting the integrity of our decaying currency, and fighting
cybercrime.
We can conclude that under those titles and with an
acknowledged 7,000 members and an acknowledged budget of $2.44 billion [Secret
Service Director Calls for More Staffing, Retention and Cybersecurity
Funding - Government Executive (govexec.com)] the Secret Service is
one of the biggest, baddest boys on the metaphorical block and can do pretty
much whatever it wants to do.
But is the Secret Service in the 21st century doing
what it ought to do?
Setting aside the Service’s catalogue of world-wide party-hearty
scandals there are now serious questions about the Service’s actions on 6
January 2021 and a possible coverup.
The then-president at one point on 6 January tasked the
Secret Service with transporting him from one place to another within the
national capital, well within the scope of their duties. The Service refused.
We can argue until the emus come home about whether the president’s thoughts or
intentions were good or bad. That’s not the point. The point is that the
President of the United States gave a lawful order to the Secret Service, and
they did not follow it.
Later the same day the vice-president was moved by the
Secret Service from the House chamber, which was being attacked, to a place the
Service deemed safer, a loading dock in the basement. At some point the Secret Service wanted the
vice-president to seek further refuge within the purported safety of an armored
vehicle. While in the area of the
loading dock Mr. Pence was in view of dozens of people and cameras; inside the
armored car it would be a different matter. Apparently / it seems / maybe /
kinda / sorta that the vice-president felt that if he obeyed the Service and
got into the isolation of the interior of the armored car he would no longer
have any control over his movements and thus could not fulfil his
constitutional duty in certifying the election results. After all, given that
the Secret Service had earlier chosen to control the president’s movements,
controlling the vice-president’s movements would be easier.
And now we read that the not-so-secret Secret Service’s
communications for the 6th of January are suddenly secret after all
– like Mrs. Clinton’s communications [Why
Hillary Clinton Deleted 33,000 Emails on Her Private Email Server - ABC News
(go.com)] they have reportedly disappeared.
The point, remember, is not whether we like or dislike
Mr. Trump or Mr. Pence, or whether we are satisfied with the results of the
election. The point of these few paragraphs is that some of the 7,000 employees
of Secret Service, whose duties include protecting the president and
vice-president and by extension the safety of the nation, may have overreached their
authority for purposes best known to themselves, and may be concealing their
activities from oversight.
We need a stable organization protecting the presidency,
not a Streltsy controlling the presidency.
-30-
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