Let me get this straight. Secret Service Agents and some military guys brought more than 20 – count ‘em, _twenty _– hookers to a hotel in Cartagena, Columbia. The Americans were drinking–a lot, according to hotel staff. When the girls were ready to leave, apparently, the Americans refused to pay.
I guess these soldier or sailors or Marines don’t watch enough movies. They’d know how hookers act when they don’t get paid.
For the record, I am a former U.S. Navy submariner. I got myself into some sailorly shenanigans in foreign countries in about 1986. The incident(s) involved at least one of the two vices at the heart of this story. I’ll leave the specifics to your imagination, but I will say that during my next security investigation, the Navy Investigative Services officer handling my case asked me to repeat the story to, not one, but five of his peers and supervisors. They seemed amused. But I digress.
So these hookers make a commotion in the hallway of this hotel in Cartagena which disturbs the other guests who alert the hotel management who find their hallways littered with prostitutes, liquor, and Americans.
So the hotel manager calls the authorities who rush straight to the scene from a wild nightclub where they’d been doing belly shots with none other than U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
To avoid blatant hypocrisy, I’ll confine my criticisms to three aspects of the Secret Service and soldiers’ behavior.
First, the timing was miserable. The President of the United States, whom they are sworn to protect, was hours from entering the country. Eyes were squarely upon them and their behavior. Plus, the media and internets are still abuzz with the burgeoning GSA scandal. On top of that demonstration of government excess, this incident reveals a callous entitlement mentality among everyone who feeds at the public trough. A consequence of Barack Obama’s sermons that public servant are the moral masters of the swine who clothe and feed them.
Second, when on Presidential detail, even away from the President, your conduct is expected to be beyond reproach. These folks did not have ordinary assignments, but prestigious, privileged jobs. No matter what you, I, or they think of the current White House occupant, they accepted positions that demand decorum and conduct that saves that high office from scandal. Obama and his czars are fully capable of disgracing our institutions without their help.
Third, why didn’t they just pay the damn hookers?
But my original question still stands: how the hell did Bill Clinton manage miss out on all this fun?
UPDATE: One of the “escorts” speaks. And it looks the event compromised national security secrets.