Secret Service Prostitution Scandal
First, I think prostitution should be legal. Second, I can understand if there are Secret Service job rules they need to abide by, but at least one of these situations doesn't sound like it quite fits the bill of seeking out a prostitute -- or agreeing to the services of one. Sounds like our boy got himself scammed.
From the WaPo/AP story, this sounds like the guy thought he was having consensual sex:
King said he was told that anyone visiting the hotel overnight was required to leave identification at the front desk and leave the hotel by 7 a.m. When a woman failed to do so, it raised questions among hotel staff and police, who investigated. They found the woman with the agent in the hotel room and a dispute arose over whether the agent should have paid her.King said he was told that the agent did eventually pay the woman.
On the downside, do we want Secret Service agents who are this naive about what (or who) goes down in Cartagena?
via @TedFrank
Probably what happened was there no local guide.
When I went to Korea, there were prostitutes and then the whores who didn't charge, but expected to be "kept" for the year.
But the other G.I.s who had been there for a while would always share their wisdom on what, how, and who to do. (And to avoid.)
If you land in a foriegn country and the local customs are different (as usual) you may not realize you are hooking up with a hooker.
Jim P. at April 15, 2012 8:17 AM
I doubt anyone cared that they has sex, paid for or not. They care about embarrassing the President while he's on a foreign tour. In other words, the big problem is that they got caught.
Steve Daniels at April 15, 2012 9:11 AM
Wait.
Is no one concerned about what a security detail, conducting business in a foreign country is doing on its off time?
I get it. Since we had a married President we excused for having sex with anyone who could be left alone with him, it's just dandy that the help is getting some, too.
For some reason, I thought these guys weren't drunken sailors. My bad.
Radwaste at April 15, 2012 9:42 AM
Illegal or not; embarrassing or not. The primary reason (officially anyway) for this group to be there was to set up procedures, security measures, etc. for the US President's visit. Period.
Among other issues, the problem, as I see it, is that this was a possible breach of security. At least one of them allowed a possibly "unvetted" person into their area. Was there any danger of information getting into the wrong hands? maybe not; but, we just don't know, do we? (as if they are going to tell us now)
If anyone of these security guys cannot control his libido when "in country" he needs to find a new career. pronto. There is a reason that the Secret Service has "rules" to be followed.
As for the drinking issue and being obnoxious - well, we don't know if that is really the case. However, they should respect the locals and their culture. How the locals perceive them does matter since they not only represent the U.S., they also represent the U.S. President. And we can certainly do better than have agents (not just young marines) that hire hookers.
I'm with Amy on this: ". . . do we want Secret Service agents who are this naive . . . ?"
Charles at April 15, 2012 10:50 AM
Steve wrong, Raddy right. This is not what their lives are supposed to be about.
It's weird how some people think of international travel as a precious and distinctly obvious opportunity to get meaningfully laid... "Strange", they call it.
It's weird because, like, there are women all over the globe. There are women unlike the ones you usually spend time with just a neighborhood or two away from you. There are probably women unlike the ones you usually spend time with in your own office/work environment, if you ever made time to speak to them.
The whole vibe of this mentality is creepazoid-pathetic... As if America, the family, and Western Civ itself were constraining a guy from being the free, naked-shaky spirit that he knows himself to be... As if the full expression of his secretly fabulous sexual identity would be too overwhelming for people who know him (and actually make his life work) to deal with.
Crid at April 15, 2012 11:08 AM
...Even when, as you guys have noted, the secretly fabulous sexual guy is a Secret Service Agent on a very public international mission to protect the well-being of our commander-in-chief.
I don't have the heart to look up the story... We're they doing drugs, too?
Crid at April 15, 2012 11:10 AM
And while we can all admire the libertarian impulse of saying "prostitution should be legal," it's unlikely that Amy would actually want to have any of it happening in her life... In her neighborhood, with her close friends and family as patrons (even), in her other zones of influence.
There's something even worse about saying it's OK in Cartagena when the patrons are Norteamericanos.
Crid at April 15, 2012 11:25 AM
Charles is on it.
What information could have been leaked because of this? If tiny things can be meaningful when combined with other information. Little slips.
Even if it is legal it could still be used for black mail. Don't want the wife to find out about that - even though it was legal.
The Former Banker at April 15, 2012 11:28 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/04/15/secret_service.html#comment-3142416">comment from CridAnd while we can all admire the libertarian impulse of saying "prostitution should be legal,"
I don't want NASCAR races on my block, either. If prostitution were legal, it would work the same as other businesses -- there would be prostitution centers in strip malls and elsewhere (except the ones in strip malls wouldn't have to pretend they give massages for sore muscles alone).
Amy Alkon at April 15, 2012 12:36 PM
Charles. You are obviously oblivious to how much easier it is for the average American guy to legally get laid just about anywhere else in the world than here. You just go ahead hitting on the girls at the office. Good luck with that and the ensuing multimillion dollar litigation, fool.
DirkJohanson at April 15, 2012 2:07 PM
Sorry Charles, I meant Crid
DirkJohanson at April 15, 2012 2:09 PM
If anyone of these security guys cannot control his libido when "in country" he needs to find a new career. pronto. There is a reason that the Secret Service has "rules" to be followed.
And just to be safe, better not let them ever has sex or form realtionships. Never know if the Irish Catholic hottie you met in mass is really an agent of a forign poower trolling for highly placed government agents, better safe than sorry right?
lujlp at April 15, 2012 2:32 PM
Also what was that one off quote from the local boot likcking quisling claiming his is an inherently inferior culture?
lujlp at April 15, 2012 2:35 PM
> oblivious to how much easier it is for the
> average American guy to legally get laid
Does the "average" American need that badly for it to be "easier"? Or is it only a certain kind of isolated paranoiac?
> If prostitution were legal, it would work the
> same as other businesses -- there would be
> prostitution centers in strip malls
I'm two blocks from a strip mall. You seem to think that if YOU don't have to deal with it, it's not real.
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at April 15, 2012 6:54 PM
lujlp, men spill secrets with slips of the tongue to their mistress, their wife, and or their girlfriends.
They do not spill secrets to prostitutes.
Do you know why?
Because half the reason a man hires a prostitute is because he wants sex without talking, and he wants her to leave afterwards. He's not hiring her with the intention of conversation.
If he's going to slip information, a prostitute is the last person that possibility will fall to.
Robert at April 15, 2012 8:14 PM
I lived in an apartment complex about two blocks from two strip malls, one with a bar. We never had a problem.
I live about 12 miles from a large porn store. I don't have anyone coming onto my property to have sex.
Amy lives a few doors down from a bar. As I understand it her activism has slowly gotten the bar under control.
When I was in Korea, I was escorted into a whorehouse by the mama-san. The door to the far left led into a mink blanket store. The next door on the left led upstairs to a church. The door on the right led down to the whore house.
If it is truly disrupting your community then you need to talk to the mall owners and it's business owners. If they don't respond, then go your local officials. But just assuming that a whorehouse would be disruptive without looking at the surrounding circumstances is wrong. Would a bar be worse? What about a 24 hour hair salon?
Jim P. at April 15, 2012 8:49 PM
"They do not spill secrets to prostitutes."
Of all the things to bet on, this may be the dumbest.
Radwaste at April 16, 2012 2:15 AM
You are a Secret Service Agent in Colombia preparing for a visit from the President of the United States. You are supposed to be representing your country, and anything you do will reflect on your country and its government.
That might not be right. You might not want it to be right. It makes no difference, though. You've beclowned yourself and your country. Nice going, knucklehead.
Old RPM Daddy at April 16, 2012 4:27 AM
Crid, you're one of these people that will come up with every ridiculous "justification" for keeping most of the USA as one of the only places in the world where both prostitution is both illegal and the law is enforced with more than a token, parking ticket-level fine Earth to crid: people in residential neighborhoods have sex, and they hand money to each other. Husbands hand money to wives, mothers to children, homeowners to plumbers, etc. Its also on every computer, in the form if porn. Of course, if you don't want it in your neighborhood, fine - those of us who are payahs and prostitutes would be happy if it were only legal next to the city garbage dump. Leave us the fuck alone or rest assured the mood is growiung among us to start fucking with people like you and what you want out of life.
DirkJohanson at April 16, 2012 6:43 AM
> will come up with every ridiculous
> "justification" for
Who are you quoting?
> Husbands hand money to wives
Y'know, one of the hazards Amy faces for being a salt-of-the-Earth kind of gal, for being a thoughtful and receptive spirit, is that every now and then guys turn up with attitudes like this... Stingy, isolated, look-out-for-#1 guys who can't understand why they're not welcome in the marketplace of affection. And there's a lot of silliness about men's rights...
> Leave us the fuck alone
This is 21st-century America. We do sexual relations and care for women better than anybody who ever lived. You're in our territory now.
> the mood is growiung among us to start
> fucking with people like you and what you
> want out of life.
If you were competent enough to be threatening, you'd be getting laid without weeping into your wallet, and this wouldn't be a problem.
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at April 16, 2012 1:05 PM
> I live about 12 miles from a large porn store.
> I don't have anyone coming onto my property
> to have sex.
I guess I don't see your point. Do you think I'm saying you should expect to?
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at April 16, 2012 1:07 PM
Radwaste:
"They do not spill secrets to prostitutes."
Of all the things to bet on, this may be the dumbest.
I really needed a laugh today! Thank you so much!
Charles at April 16, 2012 1:47 PM
"Of all the things to bet on, this may be the dumbest"
When was the last time any of you had a conversation with a prostitute?
You've seen "Pretty Woman" to many times.
If that movie were at all realistic, it would have been a lot shorter and gone something like this:
scene: Business guy Gere has sex with hooker, she starts to talk.
Business guy Gere: Yeah...you gotta leave.
People have used sex to get information though.
But it wasn't through prostitution.
The Soviet Union used "Romeo Agents", spies who romanced young women who worked as secretaries, and then convinced or conned them into stealing information. Worked pretty well for a number of years.
And the Israelis used a similar strategy back in the 80s to identify Iraq's nuclear program, which they destroyed in 1985 with a tactical air strike that prevented them from getting nuclear weapons by 1990.
Sex has been a tool of information gathering for thousands of years.
However, it depends on a raport growing between the seducer and the seduced.
Not on a quickie in a hotel room during a weekend stay from a $47 hooker.
Robert at April 16, 2012 10:01 PM
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