Wednesday, September 30, 2015

From the consummate professionals of the Secret Service...

An assistant director of the Secret Service urged that unflattering information the agency had in its files about a congressman critical of the service should be made public, according to a government watchdog report released Wednesday.

“Some information that he might find embarrassing needs to get out,” Assistant Director Edward Lowery wrote in an e-mail to a fellow director on March 31, commenting on an internal file that was being widely circulated inside the service. “Just to be fair.”
Isn't that just wonderful, just professional as hell?  And from an Assistant Director, yet.

Oh, let's not forget this, either:
That information was part of Chaffetz’s personnel file stored in a restricted Secret Service database and required by law to be kept private.
Wonder what the penalty is supposed to be for violating that law?  And what the chances are of Lowery actually being charged for it?

The Chaffetz file, contained in the restricted database, had been peeked at by about 45 Secret Service agents, some of whom shared it with their colleagues in March and April, the report found. This prying began after a contentious March 24 House hearing at which Chaffetz scolded the director and the agency for its series of security gaffes and misconduct. The hearing sparked anger inside the agency.

The inspector general’s inquiry found the Chaffetz information was spread to nearly every layer of the service.
Take a minute and think about that.  Restricted information, being passed around like a friggin' bottle at a party.  Because the SS is all butthurt at being called on some real screwups...

Here's something that makes this even more interesting(if by 'interesting' you mean 'messy and unprofessional and downright stupid'):
Roth said in his report that it was “especially ironic and troubling” that the Chaffetz information circulated so widely inside the agency and yet Clancy did not know about it. Even Clancy chief of staff Michael Biermann and Deputy Director Craig Magaw had been privy to the information, the report said, but did not alert Clancy.

Clancy had previously raised concerns about the failure of his staff to keep him properly informed. At the March 24 hearing, he said he was “infuriated” that he was not alerted by his senior management to an incident earlier that month in which two senior supervisors drove onto the White House complex after a night of drinking and crossed through an active bomb-investigation scene.
Your own damned CoS and Deputy Director couldn't be bothered to let you know this land mine with a smoking fuse was out there?  This is the best staff you could get?

And yeah, there's more.  Go check it out, including the IG stepping in it.

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