US Vice President Harris was in a car accident on his way to work： Is the Secret Service still ＂reliable＂？
According to the latest report on the 6th, US Vice President Harris suffered a car accident on his way to work on Monday, but he was not injured. However, this incident worried both Director united states secret service and the Vice President, and once again triggered doubts about the Secret Service.
According to two people familiar with the matter, a motorcade carrying Harris to work had a bicycle accident on a closed road in Washington on Monday morning local time. An SUV driven by Agent united states secret service drove Harris into the curb of a tunnel in the city center. Because the accident caused the vehicle to need to change tires, Secret Service agents had to transfer Harris to another car in the convoy before finally sending her to the White House safely.
According to reports, united states secret service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said that the cause of the accident was that the driver swerved excessively while driving.
U.S. Vice President Harris
Unexplained accident
The head of the Secret Service was "kept in the dark" for the first time.
However, because the agents in charge of driving the president and vice president’s vehicles have received high-level training, accidents in routine work like this have puzzled many Secret Service personnel, even Harris himself.
According to the report, the Secret Service personnel did not mention the key details of the incident in the official email that reported the delay of Harris Team to their superiors. The agency’s protection intelligence department only wrote in the report that during the scheduled trip to the White House, the "mechanical failure" of the lead car forced the agent to transfer Harris to another car.
A person familiar with the matter said that it was not until Monday afternoon that Secret Service Director Kim Chettle received a message from other agents, saying that the email did not accurately convey the truth. In fact, many other Secret Service agents around Harris and the White House know that Harris’s driver hit the sidewalk of the tunnel.
Guglielmi confirmed the news, saying that the agents did not disclose all the details of the problems in the vice president’s motorcade in the formal written warning at first, but later reported the situation to their superiors in person. He explained: "The initial radio communication showed that this was a mechanical failure. After the protection operation was completed, the leadership was verbally updated with additional relevant facts, that is, the vehicle hit the curb. "
A witness photographed Harris’ motorcade stuck at the tunnel entrance.
There are many "black history"
The accident once again triggered public concern about the Secret Service.
It is reported that because united states secret service has a "long and troublesome history" in covering up his mistakes and misconduct, the accident has once again aroused people’s concerns about the agency. An official of the Secret Service revealed that Kim Chettle had told people around her that she was uneasy about the inaccuracy of the Harris accident warning, and "I was relieved when I learned more comprehensive information later that day."
According to the report, united states secret service’s top officials and managers often rely on the "presidential security cloak" to cover up their weaknesses and failures. In 2011, there was a shooting incident in the White House. Under the "misleading" of the Secret Service, the American public and the first family thought that "this is a group of gang members shooting at each other". But in fact, the real information obtained by the Secret Service is that the gunman tried to kill the then US President Barack Obama.
In 2014, a veteran with mental problems successfully jumped over the fence and broke into the White House. The Secret Service tried to cover up his mistakes and provided wrong information. According to the report of the Secret Service, the man was unarmed, but in fact he was armed. The report also claimed that the man was detained by Secret Service personnel at the main entrance of the White House, but in fact he broke into the main building of the White House after subduing a Secret Service official, and was finally caught in the East Wing of the White House.
In 2015, the Secret Service was caught in a public opinion dispute because of the bomb investigation that disturbed the White House. According to reports, after drinking all night, the top agent in charge of White House security affairs and another senior executive drove into the White House, crossed the cordon and entered a scene where a bomb investigation was going on. Subsequently, the vehicle driven by the two men hit a temporary roadblock and stopped directly next to the suspicious bomb package.
According to reports, although dozens of secret service staff knew about it, no one reported it to the director at that time. Five days after the incident, Joseph Clancy, then director of the Secret Service, learned about the safety accident from a former agent and friend.
Red star journalist Xu Huan
Editor Li He Xianfeng
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