Did they think they were on spring break? Because of their apparent confusion, 12 members of a Secret Service advance team and another dozen members of the military — including members of the Army Special Forces, Navy bomb disposal experts, dog handlers and an airman — were under investigation for what may have been their roles in the Colombian prostitution scandal that ripples wider and wider.
The Defense Department has suspended the security clearances of some of the military members; the toll among the Secret Service agents, according to MSNBC — seven resignations; three cleared with administrative punishment, one fired; and one retired.
But the Secret Service itself has taken the biggest hit of all. And that demands a tough, thorough, bipartisan congressional investigation, independent of the internal probe the agency is conducting.
The agency's mission is laid out on its website: "to safeguard the nation's financial infrastructure and payment systems to preserve the integrity of the economy, and to protect national leaders, visiting heads of state and government, designated sites and national special security events."
But this dry explainer comes nowhere near capturing Secret Service agents' high stakes, flesh-and-blood responsibilities. Agents put their lives on the line to protect the president of the United States. So much rides on their ability to do so successfully — the nation's well-being is paramount — and successive presidents, including President Obama, have expressed their deep and abiding gratitude for the selfless work these agents do.
The advance team in Cartagena was solidifying the security plan for Mr. Obama's appearance at the Summit of the Americas. Then, apparently, things went haywire, hormonally speaking. An ugly spat over payment between one woman and an agent exploded. Local police got involved, and what had been one ill-advised liaison was revealed to be a wider-ranging romp of bad behavior, the result of even worse collective judgment.
The salaciousness of the details can't mask the fact that this sex scandal actually represents a huge security breach that could have put the president in grave danger. It's a throwback to the hard-partying and laxness that the Secret Service, over the past 10 years, has worked hard — fairly successfully — to eradicate from its ranks. That image was well-deserved. Agents were prosecuted or disciplined for drunken driving, sex with underage girls, brawls and drug use.
After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the agency slowly but surely cleaned up its act. Still, there are indications that the reinvigorated strait-laced culture was coming loose in spots. In 2002, while doing security work at the Olympics in Salt Lake City, an agent who was souvenir shopping left behind the security plan for then-Vice President Cheney and his family. Then there was the high-profile breach when a couple, the Salahis, crashed a state dinner at the White House. Their names weren't on the list of invitees, who must be cleared by the Secret Service. Yet, there they were, photographed up close and personal with Mr. Obama and Vice President Biden. The Salahis just wanted their 15 minutes of fame. What if their motives were more nefarious?
Agency director Mark Sullivan so far has weathered the scandal intact. He, and a Miami-based supervisor, acted swiftly and decisively after the bad news broke. Now Congress should step in — checking partisanship at the door. The duties of the Secret Service are not about politics. They're about the nation's security.