View Full Version : Intruder makes it into the Whitehouse..............
Geez........come on guys............can't you protect our president better than this?
He jumped the fence was tackled inside the Whitehouse.
gimmethesimplelife
9-20-14, 1:45pm
I personally find it ironic that, living in a border state as I do, to constantly hear about how our border is so porous and non-secured and here we have someone able to get over the White House fence. I don't know what to make of this but this does not inspire much confidence in overall US security. Am I wrong on this? Rob
IshbelRobertson
9-20-14, 1:52pm
Sheesh....
We had someone break into the Queen's bedroom in Buck House some years ago.... She awoke to find this numpty in her bedroom!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/9/newsid_2498000/2498731.stm
I really think we in the U.S. are pretty naive......A little less so after 9-11, but still, pretty naive.
gimmethesimplelife
9-20-14, 2:01pm
I really think we in the U.S. are pretty naive......A little less so after 9-11, but still, pretty naive.Naïve in what way, Cathy, as to our personal and/or US security? I have to admit 9/11 was a real eye opener for me - I never would have believe that such a thing would happen. I feel a lot less naïve about US security - or the security of any other country - since then. Rob
Well, what about that guy who threw the shoes at Bush? OK, the first shoe maybe, took them by surprise, but he should have been on the ground begging for mercy before he could even draw back for the second shoe. That one really blew me away. Sure, after the fact I thought it was funny, the shoe throwing part, but the lack of security really pissed me off. He could have just as easily drawn a gun.
I haven't heard about this intruder in the White House. Been busy outdoors and disconnected from the news.
It's a fence. People can climb fences. It happens. That doesn't mean our race has fallen into decay...
What would you have the White House look like?
http://www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall/xgraphics/photographs/history/grenzanlagen.jpg
Maybe just an electric part to the top of the fence........or an alarm system........or some junk yard dogs.........
ToomuchStuff
9-21-14, 2:12am
I don't normally hope into this section, and I didn't even realize the post was in this section until I started to reply..............
Does the Secret service report to you Cathy? Would you have rather they used the ones on the roof, or at other locations, to take the person out via a bullet, rather then less lethal force? Same question for the child that slipped through the fence and away from its parents a few weeks ago?
Did he try any non sealed doors first? Did they direct him to where they tackled him? Was the president standing in that area? I'd be interested in the responses the service reported to you.
I'm baffled by your response TMS (and Bae's too). We have billions and billions of dollars to spend on lots of stuff........can we not keep the Whitehouse and the president/staff safe?? Many people from various cultures would love to blow up the Whitehouse and kill the president. I wonder what your responses would have been, had he had a bomb/gun, etc. and actually had done some damage. Like I said, I'm confused by your answers.
I've wondered - with all this military hardware being distributed to police departments and schools, eventually someone will get more creative than scaling a fence with a knife.
ToomuchStuff
9-21-14, 11:00am
I'm baffled by your response TMS (and Bae's too). We have billions and billions of dollars to spend on lots of stuff........can we not keep the Whitehouse and the president/staff safe?? Many people from various cultures would love to blow up the Whitehouse and kill the president. I wonder what your responses would have been, had he had a bomb/gun, etc. and actually had done some damage. Like I said, I'm confused by your answers.
Who was hurt? Gun is assumed, scenario's are planned and trained for, and he didn't try to drive a car into there, like the one shot some time back. Why wouldn't you assume they have detectors out in the lawn like they do at facilities such as area 51 (in ground detectors), or looked through thermal imaging on remote camera's at body heat signatures (where bombs strapped to the chest would be blocking a normal body pattern)?
You can play what if all day if you like (and that is what the Service does regularly, but you know that if they report to you), but it does no real good. (facts are what is important)
No matter what, he and everyone around him isn't safe and those around him are considered expendable, but plans for the worse are in place (ever hear of a Vice President, and a chain of command). There is a book by a former Seal, who wrote about a training exercise where their job was to blow up Air Force one and they suceeded (as well as other things in the book/ Richard Marcinko I think is his name).
If Russia wanted him dead, they would just take care of it. Others would suicide squad until it was done, or terrorists with a nuclear bomb (if they got their hands on it), in a sewer, within blast range of some location of him.
Again, I'm finding your response curious. You are correct........no one was hurt, half of the Whitehouse wasn't obliterated, along with everyone else in there. But if you want facts, the fact is that someone got INTO the Whitehouse. There's no guessing or imagining here.........it's a fact.
Let's figure out what went wrong so we can improve on our security there. Is everything only assessed by what happened as opposed to what could have happened? In the Secret Service.......aren't they thinking "We were just damned lucky this time.......but this will not happen again, because of this, this and this that we will put in place." No, the secret service hasn't called me with their info........but damn........I would be pissed as hell if they were guarding me and this happened. What's wrong with wanting to improve what appears to be an error? I would have at least expected them to shoot the intruder in the leg as he was sprinting across the lawn, headed for the front door.
"Many people from various cultures would love to blow up the Whitehouse and kill the president."
Yeah--like John Wilkes Booth, John Hinckley, Squeaky Fromme, Lee Harvey Oswald (maybe)...all home-grown, delusional and/or politically-motivated. Most threats on the president--which rose to 30 per day when Barack Obama was elected--come from American citizens.
I was referring to all cultures including our own. I imagine this lapse in security makes all kinds of terrorists think their acts of violence might be easier than they thought.
ApatheticNoMore
9-21-14, 1:06pm
http://news.yahoo.com/why-the-secret-service-didn-t-shoot-the-fence-jumper-160933257.html
I was referring to all cultures including our own. I imagine this lapse in security makes all kinds of terrorists think their acts of violence might be easier than they thought.
Thank you for clearing that up. >8)
http://news.yahoo.com/why-the-secret-service-didn-t-shoot-the-fence-jumper-160933257.html
Well, we'll see how long the restraint can continue. This ain't your mama's country anymore.
iris lilies
9-21-14, 1:26pm
Again, I'm finding your response curious. You are correct........no one was hurt, half of the Whitehouse wasn't obliterated, along with everyone else in there. But if you want facts, the fact is that someone got INTO the Whitehouse. There's no guessing or imagining here.........it's a fact.
Let's figure out what went wrong so we can improve on our security there. Is everything only assessed by what happened as opposed to what could have happened? In the Secret Service.......aren't they thinking "We were just damned lucky this time.......but this will not happen again, because of this, this and this that we will put in place." No, the secret service hasn't called me with their info........but damn........I would be pissed as hell if they were guarding me and this happened. What's wrong with wanting to improve what appears to be an error? I would have at least expected them to shoot the intruder in the leg as he was sprinting across the lawn, headed for the front door.
Let's see Cathy, now I am supposed to be shocked and horrified that the law enforcement officials used restraint? This is after the shock and horror I'm supposed to feel in the Ferguson, MO shooting case. I'm getting whiplash from media spin and societal outrage about supposed assaults on black men, first Michael Brown, now President Barack Obama.
Let's remember that the White House is Our House as it says in the article ANM linked:
“I know how to stop fence-jumpers,” the insider said. “We close Pennsylvania Avenue to pedestrians completely and we put barbed wire on top of the fence.”
“But that’s not reasonable,” the source added. “We want Americans to be able to come up to that fence line and take pictures and have fun and enjoy it.”
Yeah i guess the safety of our president and all that goes on there is less important than what the gawkers want . There are other alternatives than a mine field you know.
Maybe he took this a little too literally.
http://lemmingstone.com/images/20080302170939_welcome%20to%20the%20white%20house% 20700.jpg
LOL. If only he 'd knocked politely at the door.....
Cathy - The White House is a tourist attraction just as much (maybe more so) then the Presidents home. Image is important and the public doesn't want to see (or be freaked out by) razor wire topped electric fences patrolled by jack booted M-16 toting guards and their snarling German Shepard's like Bae's depiction of the Berlin Wall. So the Secret Service sacrifice a certain level of security in order to maintain the calm homey image of the White House for tourists. Doesn't mean that they aren't on the ball or have other, unseen, security measures in place (they obviously do) just that it's stepped down from what COULD be done for the sake of image and to give the public a more safe feeling then if it were barricaded up.
I imagine this lapse in security makes all kinds of terrorists think their acts of violence might be easier than they thought.
Any terrorist wannabe who has take a HAZMAT awareness or operator course, which is required for many first responders these days, would be well beyond the "run-across-the-lawn" level of thinking.
Get a copy of the DOT's ERG book, read through it, then look at the trucks on the road and the tankers on your local rail lines with new eyes...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Response_Guidebook
I responded to an incident last year that was going to require a 1/2 mile radius evacuation...
Bae, I don't see how this has anything to do with what happened at the Whitehouse. Yeah, there's a lot of horrible things that can happen elsewhere, but there's no reason not to take one crazy person more seriously.
Bae, I don't see how this has anything to do with what happened at the Whitehouse. Yeah, there's a lot of horrible things that can happen elsewhere, but there's no reason not to take one crazy person more seriously.
It has to do with your comment that it would inspire "terrorists". I'm pretty sure real terrorists aren't going to learn anything new or more useful from this incident.
As to taking "one crazy person more seriously" - you don't *really* know what procedures are in place, what the resources are, and how "seriously" the Secret Service operates. You expressed wonder that they didn't just "shoot him in the leg", indicating to me you don't have a sufficient knowledge base to draw upon to even formulate an informed opinion on the matter.
So I'm not sure what you are expressing.
Doesn't mean that they aren't on the ball or have other, unseen, security measures in place (they obviously do) just that it's stepped down from what COULD be done for the sake of image and to give the public a more safe feeling then if it were barricaded up.
But obviously they weren't on the ball when this man made it clear to the White House doors....
I totally get what CathyA is saying here. Even according to the article that was posted earlier on here - "the officials inside the White House were astonished and embarrassed that the SS didn't at least tackle the guy".
I don't think the White House needs to be barricaded from the public, but the SS does need to step it up. I'm glad they didn't shoot this guy, but they could have at least released the security dog they have there to bring the guy down before he made it to the front doors of the White House. I mean, it is their JOB to PROTECT the President and the White House. It's rather disturbing, at least to me and others I have talked to, that the SS didn't perform their duties adequately. It is a really important job, I would say....
The white house is more than 200 years old. Our friends, the English, burned it down already, once. In the late 1940's, it was completely gutted and remodeled. It can't be that great, by now. You kids know how an old house can nickel and dime you to death, right? By the way, President Truman was staying in Blair House nearby during the remodel, where at that time a terrorist attack perpetrated by two Puerto Rican nationalists took place. We've already seen a hijacked airliner hit the Pentagon. What I'm getting at is that maybe they should go ahead and construct a secure, multi-level underground bunker that serves as the official residence/office complex at another nearby location. That new structure could be connected by tunnels to the other places in D.C. that the Chief executive might frequent. Make the White House a lower-security Tourist site, only. It is a logical course to take, but I am sure that emotion(over an old building) will prevail, until a tragedy occurs. Like how city officials wait until 3-4 fatal wrecks occur before they finally put up a stop signal at an intersections or lower the speed limit, etc.
But obviously they weren't on the ball when this man made it clear to the White House doors....
I totally get what CathyA is saying here. Even according to the article that was posted earlier on here - "the officials inside the White House were astonished and embarrassed that the SS didn't at least tackle the guy".
I don't think the White House needs to be barricaded from the public, but the SS does need to step it up. I'm glad they didn't shoot this guy, but they could have at least released the security dog they have there to bring the guy down before he made it to the front doors of the White House. I mean, it is their JOB to PROTECT the President and the White House. It's rather disturbing, at least to me and others I have talked to, that the SS didn't perform their duties adequately. It is a really important job, I would say....
I agree that those particular Agents on duty were not on the ball - and should be canned. But my response wasn't to the actions of the agents but more to the security measures that are in place - and why they aren't higher so as to prevent entry in the first place. There are security measures in place (armed agents, dogs, etc...) even if not visible but it's still up to the people on duty to use the measures in place unless they want to make the White House like a Prison. In this case they did drop the ball but I think that warrants getting better agents not beefing up security measures at the White House.
They had dogs, but didn't use them.
I forget which comedian said this about it, but it was funny........."So..........you're going to do better with the Whitehouse security? Does that mean you're going to lock the front door now?" :doh:
IshbelRobertson
9-23-14, 1:38pm
Our friends, the English, burned it down already, once.
When will SOME foreigners understand that 'English' and 'British' are not interchangeable terms? Our crowns were united in 1603 And our parliaments about one hundred years later, preceeding the USA's war of independence by quite a margin >8)
Well, I did a quick check, and it turns out the Commanding Officer who instigated the Arson on the structure that later became known as The White House was an Irishman, by the name of Ross. Ha. That figures. He and his buddies got liquored up---prolly on a binge, and decided on having "A hot time in the old town, tonight!" When the Good Guys fixed up the burn damage afterward, they had to do a quick-fix on the exterior by painting it white, to cover up the scorched areas. Since it was white paint, the building became known as The White House. Now you know.
Apparently, not all the details were released. Now we're hearing that the intruder made it quite a ways into the Whitehouse, running through the halls, past the stairs to the President's family's residence, through the East room, almost to the Green room. Appears that the alarm at the door was disabled, 'cause the staff was tired of hearing it go off. Unbelievable.
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