Agents Boasted About Work to Prostitutes: Sources

This is not the scandal Obama needed before election
By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 18, 2012 2:04 AM CDT
Agents Boasted About Work to Prostitutes: Sources
The Hotel El Caribe in Cartagena, Colombia, site of Secret Service agents' hijinks.   (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

In another apparent security breach, Secret Service agents in Colombia bragged to prostitutes that they were in charge of protecting President Obama, sources tell ABC News. As they partied at a sex club, members of the president’s advance team allegedly boasted: “We work for Obama,” and “we’re here to protect him," the network reports. The agents also had schedules of the president's itinerary in their rooms, MSNBC reported, when they invited as many as 21 prostitutes back to their hotel (some agents are now saying they didn't know they were sex workers). New York Rep. Peter King, head of the Committee on Homeland Security, insisted yesterday that the agents had no "sensitive documents" in their rooms. Though he added that the female strangers did have access to information about the president's whereabouts and security protocols, and that the agency "lucked out" because they weren't terrorists. "It could have been disastrous," he said.

Eleven agents were sent back to the US, placed on leave, and stripped of their top secret security clearances. Ten military personnel are now also being investigated for their role in a "night of widespread debauchery," reports the Washington Post. President Obama is steering clear of the mess, at least until an internal investigation is complete. But it's one of the last things he needs during the presidential campaign, notes AP. (More Cartagena stories.)

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