THREE SECRET SERVICE agents protecting President Barack Obama in Amsterdam this week were sent home and put on leave after a night of drinking, The Washington Post reported.
“One of them was found drunk and passed out in a hotel hallway,” the Post reported, citing three unnamed people familiar with the case.
The latest eye-raising incident recalls the April 2012 scandal involving Secret Service Agents and prostitutes in Cartagena, Colombia.
And in this case, “the alleged behavior would violate new Secret Service rules adopted” after the scandal in Colombia that involved agents drinking and bringing prostitutes to their hotel before Obama arrived in the Colombian Caribbean resort city, the Post reported.
Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan confirmed the agency “did send three employees home for disciplinary reasons” and that they were put on administrative leave pending an investigation. Donovan declined to comment further, the Post added.
Stricter rules implemented in the wake of the prostitution scandal in Colombia bar agents from drinking alcohol within 10 hours of starting a shift. It’s unclear whether the other two agents were drinking heavily or what time any of them would have been expected to show up for a shift.
The Secret Service’s reputation for rowdy, fraternity-like behavior snowballed in April 2012 in the run-up to another Obama foreign trip, this one in the Caribbean resort city of Cartagena, Colombia, where 13 agents and officers were accused of carousing with female foreign nationals at a hotel where they were staying before Obama’s arrival.
After a night of heavy partying in bars and clubs, the employees brought women, including prostitutes, back to their hotel. Six of the employees eventually resigned or retired, while others had their security clearances revoked or were removed from duty.
© – AFP 2014 with reporting from Associated Press
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