5 Recent Secret Service Failures in Protecting President Obama

Sept. 27, 2014 President Barack Obama's security was put at risk when an unidentified man posing as a member of Congress made his way into a secure area backstage at a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation awards dinner in Washington, D.C. A White House official, who refused to be named, revealed the man entered the backstage area during or just after Obama’s speech at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center as members of Congress gathered there to have their pictures taken with the president. Sept. 19, 2014 Omar J. Gonzalez, 42, breached White House security and became the first person known to have jumped the fence and made it inside the executive mansion. People familiar with the incident told The Washington Post that Gonzalez, who was armed with a knife, "overpowered one Secret Service officer and ran through much of the main floor." Secret Service officials had earlier said he was quickly detained at the main entry. Sept. 16, 2014 While on a trip to Atlanta's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the president was inside an elevator with a private security contractor who was armed with a gun. After Obama exited the elevator, agents questioned the man who refused to comply with orders to stop videotaping the president with his phone. A national database check revealed the armed man had a criminal record with three convictions for assault and battery. The Secret Service did not know he was armed until his supervisor, who fired him on the spot, requested his weapon. Nov. 11, 2011 Gunman Oscar Ortega-Hernandez parked his vehicle in a closed lane of Constitution Avenue, pointed his Cugir semiautomatic rifle directly at the White House and fired at least seven shots. The bullets smashed windows, "some pinged off the roof, sending bits of wood and concrete to the ground," according to The Washington Post. Obama and his wife, Michelle, were out of town, but their youngest daughter, Sasha, and the first lady’s mother, Marian Robinson, were inside, while older daughter, Malia, was expected to return shortly after an evening out with friends. Secret Service officers were prepared to respond until an order came in from their supervisor, “No shots have been fired. ... Stand down.” He had claimed the noise was the backfire from a nearby construction vehicle. April 2012 Several Secret Service agents who were sent to Cartagena, Colombia, to provide security for the president's trip to a summit there were investigated by the U.S. Secret Service for allegations of misconduct. An unknown number of married agents reportedly solicited prostitutes. Edwin Donovan, an agency spokesman, said that an unspecified number of agents were recalled and replaced with others, stressing that Obama’s security was not compromised because of the change.

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