SOMEONE’S GETTING FIRED

Secret Service Blunders Led to Intrusion

No one was really paying attention.

The Department of Homeland Security is tearing into the Secret Service over the September incident in which an intruder was able to climb a fence and enter the White House—because of a succession of “performance, organizational, technical” and other failures, according to a scathing review of the incident. The review found that Secret Service alarm systems and radios failed to function properly and that many officers did not even see the intruder. An officer with an attack dog on the North Lawn could have stopped the intruder, but he was busy sitting in his van talking on his cellphone (he also didn’t have his earpiece in and left his second radio in his locker). It wasn’t until he saw another officer running toward the intruder that he realized what was going on and gave the dog the command to attack. The dog, however, didn’t get a chance to “lock on to” the intruder and “may not have seen” him at all. Meanwhile, the intruder continued into the White House.