Former Secret Service Agent Warns: White House Is Not Safe
A former Secret Service agent who served in the security details of both Presidents Bush and Obama warned on Saturday that President Donald Trump “is not secure in the White House right now as it stands.”
Dan Bongino, who was also an instructor at the training academy of the Secret Service, was commenting on Friday night’s reported breach of the White House complex, at least the seventh such incident in recent years.
Bongino stated: “If one guy with a backpack and Omar Gonzales with a bad knee could get near the residence of the White House, can you tell me with a straight face that a 40-man tactical assault team with heavy weapons wouldn’t take that place down?”
Bongino was referring to a 2014 incident in which Gonzales penetrated the north portico doors of the White House, reportedly brandishing a three-and-a-half-inch folding knife in a back pocket.
He offered his perspective in an interview with this reporter on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio,” broadcast on New York’s AM 970 The Answer and NewsTalk 990 AM in Philadelphia.
“The secret service is not ready right now to defend the White House,” he charged. “They’re not. I know that may make people uncomfortable. And frankly, Aaron, I am really getting tired of some of the talking heads on cable news who have never done one minute in the shoes a secret service agent.”
Bongino offered some security upgrade suggestions: “They need to fix the fence. Reinforce the manpower on the north and the south grounds. Add special weapons teams. Get the best technology in there right now. Clearly the technology sensors and cameras are not working as planned. Get them in there yesterday. There’s no other solution.”
Bongino outlined what he says are three major problems facing the Secret Service and the White House security plan.
Problem number one, according to Bongino, involves staffing: “They have had a brain drain of catastrophic portions in the Secret Service. They lost some of the best agents. If this wasn’t a public radio show that people could hear, I could tell you the names of 10 or 20 top-notch, tier-one guys who left the president’s detail just in the last five years who I still communicate with… They have had an even worse brain drain in the uniformed division side. They are responsible for the perimeter of the White House.”
Problem number two, Bongino contended, is a lack of political will to address the purported security flaws: “The management of the Secret Service right now is grossly unprepared for the evolving threats. Grossly. They say they are but they have no political will because a lot of them are out there – not all – but a lot are looking for their next consulting job. They are just praying that nothing happens on their next watch. They don’t want to be the ones to go on Capitol Hill to say this whole security plan around the White House needs to be fixed.”
And problem number three involves the actual security plan, he says: “They are way too concerned right now, the management, with the optics of White House security. That we can’t make this look like an armed camp. The prior staff didn’t like that. There other entities around the White House that want to preserve the historic look of it. But do you want a secure White House grounds or do you want it to look pretty?”
Europe Becoming Wise To George Soros
Investigations by Breitbart News – many authored by this reporter – into the global network run by George Soros have contributed to the negative atmosphere the billionaire has been facing in Europe, Politico reported.
The news outlet reported that the Hungarian government’s move to minimize the influence of Soros’s Open Society Foundations and other foreign-funded non-governmental organizations, or NGO’s, is being “seemingly buoyed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s election victory and the ascendance of the alt-right in Washington.”
Politico reported on the role of Breitbart News in exposing Soros, falsely labeling the news agency an “alt-right website.” Breitbart News, recently ranked as the 29th most trafficked U.S. website by the Alexa rankings system, is an independent news website considered by many to be the largest conservative news site in America. It has no affiliation with the so-called alt-right movement.
Politico reported: “The American alt-right website Breitbart, formerly run by Stephen Bannon, now White House chief strategist, has long fixated on Soros, accusing him of trying to bring down Europe’s borders, furthering the migrant crisis and funding Trump’s opponents.
“The perceived sympathy within the Trump administration for anti-Soros sentiments appears to have emboldened politicians throughout Central and Eastern Europe to intensify their assault on Soros-backed groups. …
“These efforts have already borne fruit: two letters, one signed by Republican Senator Mike Lee and the other by six House Republicans, were sent to the U.S. Mission in Macedonia in mid-January inquiring about U.S. funding for Open Society Foundation projects in Macedonia.”
Politico went on to report the Hungarian parliament’s plans to submit a bill on the manner in which NGOs operate within the country. Although the text of the proposed law has not yet been made public, it is widely believed that the bill will seek to require such organizations to make public the amount of money received from foreign sources. Israel passed a similar measure last July.
Sentiments against Soros have been rising in numerous European nations, including Romania, Poland, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Slovakia, Politico reported.
Breitbart News has featured a large number of stories documenting Soros’s financing of groups pushing open borders in Europe and worldwide, with a specific focus on using the migrant crisis to achieve policy aims.
In the U.S., Soros has been tied to advocacy for illegal aliens, opposition to immigration enforcement, and most recently to activist groups attempting to halt President Trump’s domestic agenda.
Reviews by this reporter of the more than 2,500 documents hacked from the servers of Soros’s Open Society Foundations highlight the undue influence the billionaire financier exerts domestically, from attempting to remake the American electorate to successfully lobbying for changes in U.S. immigration policy to funding initiatives targeting local police forces.
While many of the documents spotlight Soros’s global network, focus on the hacked materials from his Foundations’ U.S. contingent begins to expose the many tentacles of the Democratic party mega-donor’s operation and its deep impact on the policy objectives of the former administration of Barack Obama, often using a slew of U.S.-based progressive groups and activist organizations.