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Article : La protection d’Obama n’est pas loin d’équivaloir à celle d’un président en fonction

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MSM Ignores Obama Security Lapse

Thomas Tracy

  26/02/2008

Vous avez peut-etre entendu de la lacune en securite’ a une reunion pour Obama a’ Dallas (l’endroit de l’assassinat de John F Kennedy en 1963) la semaine derniere, juste avant le primaire du Texas?  Il s’agit du Secret Service qui a arrete’ de fouiller l’assistance a cause du grand nombre des gens qui voulaient d’etre admis.  Le MSM (mainstream media) s’est tut sur ce sujet, mais voici le reportage du “Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram” du lendemain de l’evenment, suivi d’un commentaire du “Media Bloodhound,” site qui guette la presse politique americaine:

http://www.star-telegram.com/251/story/486413.html

Posted on Thu, Feb. 21, 2008
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Police concerned about order to stop weapons screening at Obama rally
By JACK DOUGLAS Jr.Star-Telegram Staff Writer

UPDATE: The Star-Telegram was granted an exclusive interview with Barack Obama on Saturday afternoon.» TAKE ME THERE

DALLAS—Security details at Barack Obama’s rally Wednesday stopped screening people for weapons at the front gates more than an hour before the Democratic presidential candidate took the stage at Reunion Arena.

The order to put down the metal detectors and stop checking purses and laptop bags came as a surprise to several Dallas police officers who said they believed it was a lapse in security.

Dallas Deputy Police Chief T.W. Lawrence, head of the Police Department’s homeland security and special operations divisions, said the order—apparently made by the U.S. Secret Service—was meant to speed up the long lines outside and fill the arena’s vacant seats before Obama came on.

“Sure,” said Lawrence, when asked if he was concerned by the great number of people who had gotten into the building without being checked. But, he added, the turnout of more than 17,000 people seemed to be a “friendly crowd.”

The Secret Service did not return a call from the Star-Telegram seeking comment.

Doors opened to the public at 10 a.m., and for the first hour security officers scanned each person who came in and checked their belongings in a process that kept movement of the long lines at a crawl. Then, about 11 a.m., an order came down to allow the people in without being checked.

Several Dallas police officers said it worried them that the arena was packed with people who got in without even a cursory inspection.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because, they said, the order was made by federal officials who were in charge of security at the event.

“How can you not be concerned in this day and age,” said one policeman.

JACK DOUGLAS Jr., 817-390-7700

http://mediabloodhound.typepad.com/weblog/2008/02/special-report.html

February 24, 2008
Special Report:
Secret Service Denies Obama Security Lapse
While MSM Plays Dumb and NBC Plays Dumber;
Plus, A Reminder of Who Controls the SS

On Thursday, I wrote about a frightening lapse in security at Wednesday’s Obama rally in Dallas. Reporter Jack Douglas Jr. of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram broke the story and has since written a follow-up, to which he updated yesterday. I noted on Thursday that the mainstream media (with the exception of UPI) had completely ignored this story, which has largely continued, with the Associated Press going so far as to publish an article Friday titled “Many Blacks Worry About Obama’s Safety” yet without referencing in the piece what had occurred at Wednesday’s Dallas rally. Friday’s broadcast of NBC Nightly News did mention an alleged breach of security, but the report - a shoddy piece of journalism driven solely by the Secret Service’s official denial - was summarily tacked on to the end of a separate report on the Obama campaign.

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First, an exploration of the insufficient Secret Service response to these charges, followed by the deplorable NBC Nightly News segment and then a brief reminder of who controls the Secret Service.

Secret Service Denies Security Lapse

Jack Douglas’ follow-up includes the Secret Service’s denial of any security breach:

“There were no security lapses at that venue,” said Eric Zahren, a spokesman for the Secret Service in Washington. He added there was “no deviation” from the “comprehensive and layered” security plan, implemented in “very close cooperation with our law enforcement partners.”

Zahren rebutted suggestions by several Dallas police officers at the rally who thought the Secret Service ordered a halt to the time-consuming weapons check because long lines were moving slowly, and many seats remained empty as time neared for Obama to appear.

“It was never a part of the plan at this particular venue to have each and every person in the crowd pass through the Magnetometer,” said Zahren, referring to the device used to detect metal in clothing and bags.

So basic checks, the kind performed at any major sporting or music event, were never “part of the plan”? If such checks can be carried out for, say, 20,000 people at a Springsteen concert or 50,000 at a Yankee game, why is it too much to expect the same for our nation’s leading Democratic presidential candidate?

Douglas goes to report that Zahren “declined to give the reason for checking people for weapons at the front of the lines and letting those farther back go in without inspection.”

Why?

“We would not want, by providing those details, to have people trying to derive ways in which they could defeat the security at any particular venue,” Zahren said.

Sure, he wouldn’t want to tip off those would-be criminal masterminds to what thousands of people across the country already know: that (at least up until now) arriving late and hanging in the back of the line is the surest way to enter without being checked for a weapon.

The article ends with unique spin from the Dallas police brass:

Lt. V.L. Hale III, a spokesman for the Dallas Police Department, said in a statement Friday that he would not comment on security measures at the Obama rally except to say there was no arrest or incident and that it was a “success from a police standpoint.”

So according to Dallas Police Department officials (as opposed to the officers who were shocked and alarmed by the lapse in security), no one actually getting shot or blown up is a “success.” Of course, that’s not success, but luck.

[ ... ]