E&P: Secret Service Defends Giving Gannon/Guckert Access to White House

[sabra]

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http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000829349

Secret Service Defends Giving Gannon/Guckert Access to White House

By E&P Staff

Published: March 08, 2005 4:00 PM ET

NEW YORK Responding to a request from House Democrats to investigate the approval of James Guckert, a.k.a. Jeff Gannon, to attend White House briefings and presidential press conferences for two years, the U.S. Secret Service has declared that there was “no deviation” from “proper procedures."

Secret Service Deputy Assistant Director Conrad A. Everett defended the vetting in a letter to Rep. John Conyers and Rep. Louise Slaughter, obtained by the Web site, The Raw Story. Guckert is the former reporter for GOPUSA/Talon News who has also been linked to male escort services.

....

But Rep. Slaughter told The Raw Story, “While I appreciate the Secret Service's response to some of our questions, the bigger picture remains. The relationship between this Administration and Jeff Gannon was anything but typical and the American people deserve the full, unvarnished truth.”

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John Aravosis of Americablog, who has been prominent in the current uproar, asked: “If Gannon's day pass was effectively equivalent to a 'hard pass' given to long-term White House reporters, why didn't Gannon get a more thorough background check?” In his view, Gannon/Guckert “posed the same potential risk to national security as any hard pass reporter,” yet he was “never forced to get a hard pass, and thus never required to get the hard pass three-month FBI background check.”


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[SpiralHawk]

1. BushCo Secret Service: Move along. There's nothing to see here.

Yadda yadda yadda.

Big BushCo loves you.

We have always been at war with East Eurasia.

Yadda yadda yadda.

[lala_rawraw]

2. Duplicate...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1294109&mesg_id=1294109

[jdj]

3. And I thought "secret service" referred to protecting the president.

But I guess now I know who they service and why it's a secret.

[WTheClouds]

4. As far as they're concerned

It's over. Is anyone really surprised?

[cap]

5. on a background check , you are supposed to provide

all names you have used... and they are supposed to check all names.

[phoebe]

6. the Secret Service has let several people slip through the "fences"

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31154
of February 2003

an interesting read..

snip

And, as this reporter revealed last fall, the Secret Service's new computerized access-control system for the White House, built in the final months of the Clinton administration and put in place just after Bush arrived, apparently has left the White House complex even more vulnerable. Retired Secret Service officer Bill Castle and other sources familiar with the system told Insight that the system frequently crashes and gives inaccurate data about White House guests and employees. Insight also discovered that the chief executive officer and controlling shareholder of the company that was the lead contractor for the project was a mysterious Swiss resident named Niklaus Zenger, who had ties to the current Russian military and its Soviet predecessor and had been accused by former business associates of stealing proprietary technology.

All this going on despite *'s new 2003 appointee Basham who is ex- Secret Service...

Mr. Zenger's company, at the time, was removed from this security position but despite several interesting ventures (remember Red Cube?) his "new" company appears to be in charge of nuclear security at Scandia Labs and Los Alamos - WTF? He looks to be one heck of a slippery guy - no pictures or bios available. Wondering if he is somehow tied into this?? Any thoughts?