The much ignored story of Omar Gonzales a 42 year old Iraq Veteran who scaled the White House fence ran across the Lawns and entered the residence of the President of The United States is now gathering steam. CNN now reports.The man who jumped the White House fence earlier this month and breached the mansion’s doors actually made it farther than originally thought, officials said Monday.
Officially thought by whom? What was the official report given about this incident? Why would it require a whistle-blower to tell a Politician, Utah Republican Jason Chaffetz a member of the oversight committee that Gonzalez ran through much of the main floor, past a stairway that leads up to the first family’s residence, and was ultimately stopped at the far southern end of the East Room. He also reached the doorway to the Green Room, an area that looks out on the South Lawn. New information surfaced that one Secret Service Agent was overpowered by Gonzalez before he was ultimately subdued. The Secret Service had previously stated that Gonzalez was stopped after entering the front door of the North Portico. Why would the Secret Service deliberately lie about this? Chaffetz confirmed the details of what now appears to be a wild chase through the main floor of the White House, first reported by theWashington Post.
Chaffetz a Republican could not miss an opportunity to play politics however , saying quote: “I could not be more proud of the individual agents, but I worry that Director (Julia) Pierson and the leadership there at the Secret Service is failing them,”. It would have been a modern day miracle had a Republican dealt with a serious issue without resorting to politics.
I’m not sure what Jason Chaffetz knows about security, what I do know is that no one should be proud of those Agents who were working that day. All of them who were involved let the President his family and ultimately the Country down. It is incomprehensible that any Security Officer worth his/her training would allow an intruder to breach the fence , sprint across the Lawn and enter the home of the leader of the free world without taking him out. To those talking about the restraint, I say “bull”. Where was the restraint when they shot Miriam Carey?
This was not restraint. What happened was an egregious dereliction of duty ! Gonzalez was armed with a knife, according to reports. For all those Agents knew he could have had a gun, he could have had a bomb. What if he had a bomb strapped to himself and a timing device. This is beyond serious. The President and his Family could have been there, they could have been hurt or worse. This is as serious a breach as ever in this Agency’s long list of foul-ups in their mission to protect the first family. Never have we heard of this level of carelessness and incompetence in the protection of an American President.
Which leads us to ask whether this is incompetence or is there something else going on? Can we even trust this version of events when there has been so many different stories coming from that Agency?
To suggest that Gonzalez suffers from PTSD is beside the point. Miriam Carey was suffering from Post Partum Depression and she is dead. Restraint is being legally justified in killing but refraining from doing so because it is avoidable. When you have a duty to protect the President and his family and you allow that kind of breach to occur it is not restraint. It is incompetence.