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US Secret service falling on the sword

The recent events with the USSS personnel in Cartegena Colombia is an example of how it only takes a few bad apples to ruin a lifetime of reputation that has been built and forged. No person, agency, institution or company is beyond reproach, however it takes the totality of the group, one individual at a time to maintain reputation.

It’s like cancer in the body. It starts one cell at a time and if left untreated it will fester and grow to an untreatable state. Thats where the USSS can be viewed at this phase. Recent events over the last couple years to include the Salahi matter is symptomatic of a larger issue – Supervisory oversight. When matters of this magnitude occur the individual will be put to scrutiny beyond compare. But the long arm of disciplinary action goes uphill with this one. Eventually someone at the supervisory level will have to be the fall guy and either take the hit or fall on the sword to take the blame. The media attention that is at a fever pitched frenzy will not go away until some glimpse of disciplinary action has taken place.

The question we have to ask is this a matter of public concern and if it is, will the punishment be made to satisfy the action or will is be geared to satisfy the public. No matter how it plays out I venture to say that there will be questions and inquiries about these individuals previous evaluations and selection process.

The best way to handle this is with celerity so that it will go away. The unfortunate thing is that I feel that the feeding frenzy from the media and public will not go away unless there is a resignation or termination involved.

Someone is going to have to fall on the sword on this one.

2 comments

  1. Lawrence Snow

    I think the word is Scapegoat. It is rather interesting the amount of hoopla that our industry has made of this. I keep thinking to myself – and how does this affect you or me? So why go on the rants? Maybe you know Eric?

    1. Eric Konohia

      What happened over there doesn’t
      Affect us directly however many specialists look up to the USSS and expectations are higher. So when thing like this happen it almost humanizes them from such a higher level of expectation of reproach.

      The other sad thing that is going on is the old saying misery loves company. Basically negative dispersion of negativity.

      From a public standpoint our society craves on negativity and the chum that the media can churn and throw. The pundits, who know nothing about security spin the story further by making it a political issue. Today I heard that there was a story going around if the head of Homeland security should step down. It’s actually funny watching the news on this. But sad at the same time when you think of the actions that occurred.

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