US Secret Service Archives

The Department of Homeland Security on Thursday said the alarm system installed at the Houston residence of former US President George HW Bush and first lady Barbara Bush remained inoperable for nearly 13 months before the Secret Service fixed the utility.

The disclosure about the security lapses at the former American president’s residence was made in a report released on Thursday by the Homeland Department.

The report has not precisely made clear about when the alarm system was failed. According to the report, the failure was first experienced in September 2013.

The report further stated that a security expert for the agency had in 2010 recommended a replacement of the alarm system, which was installed in 1993. However, the request was turned down in August 2011.

Inspector General John Roth has mentioned in the report that the Secret Service agents, who were recruited at the Bushes’ home in Texas, had assigned an agent for patrolling the residence “in a roving post.”

The report also mentioned about the broader issues related to the security lapses with reporting, identification and tracking system malfunctioning and problems linked to repairing and replacing systems. According to Roth, this “may be affecting other residences protected by the agency”.

The office of the inspector general made a visit to the former president’s house in October last year following complaints that the alarm system was broken. However, the report said that the Technical Security Division of the Secret Service received a permanent alarm replacement in January last year.

“We did not determine why the equipment was not replaced in 2011 when it was originally recommended or why the alarm system obtained in January 2014 was not installed until November or December 2014,” Roth wrote in the report.

A temporary alarm was installed by the Technical Security Division last April and a more permanent system later in the fall.

Two US Secret Service agents were subpoenaed by a House of Representatives committee on Tuesday after a breach incident occurred near the White House this month when both agents allegedly drove a car in drunken condition past the barricades of White House.

Republican Jason Chaffetz, who heads the House Oversight Committee, said that they took the step after the Department of Homeland Security declined to cooperate them in the case.

“We therefore must take the regrettable step of compelling the agents for interviews before the Committee,” Chaffetz said in a statement.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson expressed his disappointment over the move, saying it is regrettable that Chaffetz had taken “the unprecedented and unnecessary step of subpoenaing two members of the US Secret Service that is accountable for providing protection to the American President”.

Johnson claimed that Chaffetz’s assertion that DHS is not cooperating with them “is simply wrong”.

In a statement, Chaffetz further stated that the Secret Service director had last week testified before the committee about the whole incident of March 4 and thereafter DHS had offered the committee staffs to interview a number of Secret Service personnel, including the agents under subpoena.

Chaffetz, however, didn’t identify the Secret Service staff against whom he had issued subpoenas. He said the committee had requested DHS for interviews with agents who could shed light not only on the March 4 incident, “but also on why the Secret Service appears to be systemically broken and in desperate need of both leadership and reform.”

The Secret Service has been facing ire for a series of high-profile security lapses in the recent times.

A security breach on September 19 forced former Director Julia Pierson to step down from the post in October.

On September 19, an unidentified man crossed the fence and entered the executive mansion with a knife.

Lapses found in security system of George HW Bush’s home: Report

Two Secret Service agents subpoenaed over security breach

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