Secret Service Members Found To Be Part of Far-Right Extremist Group--Report in Newsweek

[Swede]

Members of the Secret Service have been found to be part of the far-right extremist group the Oath Keepers, according to documents reviewed by the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

A leaked membership list reportedly shows that seven Oath Keepers said they worked or previously worked for the Secret Service, according to files dating from 2009 to 2015.

https://www.newsweek.com/secret-service-members-found-part-far-right-extremist-group-report-1766618

[paleotn]

1. Interesting statement....

A person familiar with the matter told Newsweek: "The clearance and vetting protocols for the Secret Service are among the highest in the United States federal government."

"The agency has very stringent internal vetting protocols including robust security management interviews for all employees to maintain top secret security clearances approved for sensitive compartmentalized information. The agency also has real-time insider threat monitoring for all employee and agency partners," they said.

Apparently....NOT!

[EYESORE 9001]

4. I was thinking about the vetting process before reading the article

Something is wrong with the vetting system if all these goons slipped through. Or else they’re not looking in all the right places. Nobody is so squeaky-clean in the digital age that things like fascist membership goes totally unnoticed.

[Wicked Blue]

27. My question: who is doing the vetting?

Is there a mole overseeing the vetting process?

Alternatively, is there an organized effort to contact, bribe and persuade certain agents to switch loyalty?

[Irish_Dem]

61. Wouldn't surprise me if SS agents are being recruited.

Makes me wonder what other agencies are targets?

SS agents are in a unique position to gather high level intel.

[getagrip_already]

29. Being a member is clearly not considered a security risk...

It's likely not the detection of association that is at issue. It's the determination of its risk.

Clearly being an oaf is not considered a probllem.

[EYESORE 9001]

31. And that, in and of itself, is a problem.

[Baitball Blogger]

45. I'll tell you what the vetting process looks like.

It's probably the same as the Air Force or any hard-right leaning organization. They contact people in the community that are part of their trusted group to ask about you. Quickest way to make sure they keep their ideology unchallenged by anyone who has an independent thought.

[EYESORE 9001]

53. The 'contact people' could be a weak link

Entrusted with information that can easily be edited and filtered requires a high degree of integrity. A mole could omit derogatory information and get domestic terrorists into the SS.

In addition to interviews, experts in social networks need to perform a deep dive on all applicants. That’s probably being done anyway, but they’re probably not doing it right. Maybe it’s all gatekeepers who know but still let them go.

[quakerboy]

68. Or its so endemic that its invisible

Like trying to be on the lookout for a splinter in the lumber isle of a home depot, or trying to find a Racist at CPAC.

[twodogsbarking]

14. Seems like maybe they are getting what they wanted.

Even worse.

[DallasNE]

59. Exactly.

We see the same thing with all police departments. They are getting who they want instead of who they need as a result. The playbook is THE problem.

[jaxexpat]

19. They manufactured that line of shit.....

In response to their people getting caught illegally "parting" while on duty in a foreign country I think.

[paleotn]

54. Ah, yes. The Colombia debacle.

Getting plastered and telling Colombian hookers how important they are, possibly divulging operational secrets. Just what you want from your security detail. That in itself was a call for a complete reboot.

[cstanleytech]

78. Well keep in mind the list is only of those "claiming" they work for the government.

I could claim for example to be the long lost heir to the Russian throne but it doesn't mean that I am.
So in this case the real question is how many if any actually are or were at the time the list was discovered actually worked or are working for the government?

[EYESORE 9001]

2. Why wouldn't RW extremist types be attracted to the Secret Service?

Talk about access to power and information! Eavesdropping on conversations alone could be a very profitable cottage industry.

[The Grand Illuminist]

30. It sounds like a Mass Effect origin.

The creation of The Shadow Broker.

[EYESORE 9001]

32. Wut

[Bettie]

34. I get the reference

and yeah, I can see it.

[Shipwack]

41. "I understood that reference!"

https://imgur.com/t/captain_america/VOs0JJv

[crickets]

67. +1

[The Grand Illuminist]

71. For those who don't get it......

https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/Shadow_Broker

[FalloutShelter]

3. A little late to the game, Newsweek.

This just in from the No shit Sherlock desk!
Wake the fuck up journalists.

[msfiddlestix]

5. ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ Maybe it's just not the journalists though, maybe it;s the corporate media owners holding

holding back and ignoring the obvious?

because.... well they approve.

[Firestorm49]

15. Agreed, FallOutShelter, this info has been on DU for quite some time.

[reACTIONary]

23. The report is based on ....

.... on leaked documents...

A leaked membership list reportedly shows that seven Oath Keepers said they worked or previously worked for the Secret Service, according to files dating from 2009 to 2015.

The membership list was obtained as part of a leak of Oath Keeper documents, according to OCCRP, and were provided by "a former member of the group's inner circle" who requested anonymity because of ongoing federal investigations.

Were they supposed to publish this BEFORE the documents were leaked?

[LakeArenal]

6. This astounds me. We need to disband HS.

[onetexan]

44. THIS!!☝️

[Lonestarblue]

7. Every current Secret Service employee needs to be vetted again because obviously their process

has problems. Start with the guy who claimed he was bitten by Major when he was in the family’s private quarters where he was not supposed to be.

[True Blue American]

9. Biden questioned the incident. The SS agent

Was in the living quarters when they claimed it happened. They tried to get Pence in the car, he refused. Smart man.

Biden’s new team will be thoroughly vetted!

[Texin]

13. I agree. Now we know why Biden has had a wary and jaundiced eye on the Service.

Every current agent in the employ of HS/SS need to deep-backgrounded again. If I recall correctly, Biden wouldn't allow a current Service member to be his personal protective agent. He specifically asked (told them) he wanted the agent who was his personal protective agent while he was Vice POTUS to be brought in. I believe the agent had left the Service, but could be wrong about that.

[onetexan]

46. THIS!!☝️

[jaxexpat]

20. Vet the vetters.

[onetexan]

47. THIS!!☝️

[Evolve Dammit]

26. Totally agree. Entire agency

[Rebl2]

37. Exactly!

[Maeve]

8. Hmm...has anyone checked to see if they really WERE Secret Service?

People claim all sorts of things about their careers....

[Captain Zero]

10. Yep. George Santos.

Nt

[reACTIONary]

25. Yep. And that goes double for right wingers...

... trying to up their small dick energy quotient.

[judesedit]

11. Yeah Right. The interviewers were also Oath Keepers or the equivalent

[LuckyCharms]

12. The vetting system itself could possibly be robust, but

it's likely that the individuals themselves that do the vetting are compromised, so the system is side-stepped.

Either that, or the system needs to be shored-up with multiple checks and balances performed by a number of different individuals.

[blogslug]

16. Here is the link from POGO

Originally published December 12, 2022

https://www.pogo.org/investigation/2022/12/hundreds-of-oath-keepers-have-worked-for-dhs-leaked-list-shows

More than 300 individuals on a leaked membership list of the far-right militia group the Oath Keepers described themselves as current or former employees of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Members were employed at DHS components such as the Border Patrol, Coast Guard, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Secret Service, according to a review by the Project On Government Oversight (POGO).

POGO’s review appears to be the first significant public examination using the leaked records to focus on employees in DHS — an agency with the mission of countering domestic violent extremism — and it comes only months after the March 2022 publication of a DHS study which found that “the Department has significant gaps that have impeded its ability to comprehensively prevent, detect, and respond to potential threats related to domestic violent extremism within DHS.”

“One active law enforcement official joining a militia group is one too many,” Mike German, a former undercover FBI agent who has infiltrated white supremacist and far-right extremist groups, told POGO. “This probably represents the tip of the iceberg as far as federal law enforcement officers that have been involved in or supported the activities of far-right, militant groups like the Oath Keepers.” 

Lawmakers told POGO and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), POGO’s reporting partner on this investigation, that these findings are troubling...

[Faux pas]

17. Who

else here isn't SURPRISED?!?!!!!

[DownriverDem]

18. Those still employed

should be fired.

[SouthernDem4ever]

21. +1

[Rebl2]

35. Also should

lose any pension $ they accrued.

[Scrivener7]

22. Oh, not to worry. The Secret Service Head of Communications assures us

this "will be reviewed."

"Will be reviewed." Not "was reviewed yesterday and all concerned were removed from service pending confirmation of their membership or non-membership in the Oath Keepers."

My prediction: nothing will happen to those SS members who were on that list.

Because that's the way this all seems to go.

[onetexan]

48. Exactly - the million dollar question: what happened to the rotten 7 so far

Have they been kicked out or are they still part of the SS, & what about the others still part of Homeland Sec?

[purr-rat beauty]

24. give him a traitors send off

no quarter no mercy

[Farmer-Rick]

28. The Secret Service has been useless for most of it's existence

Seems to me they haven't done much except protect banks.

They were originally established to investigate counterfeit money. The protection of the president and high public officials was an oh-by-the-way after the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901.

They were the cause of JFK's assassination. The American people thought JFK was protected and he wasn't.

Their new mission today is: "protection of the president, vice president and others; and investigations into crimes against the financial infrastructure of the United States."

https://www.secretservice.gov/about/faq/general#:~:text=The%20United%20States%20Secret%20Service,of%20the%20U.S.%20Treasury%20Department.

[ShazamIam]

33. Seems like to took our media folks a long time to notice the obvious.

[Solomon]

36. Aw come on. Everybody knows this is the type most likely to get hired by the FBI, Secret Service and

other law enforcement agencies. If you grew up in a city, you already had strikes against you in the past because you were unlikely to ever get past their vetting process for being exposed to real life. For example, ever smoke a joint? Well then you can't be in the FBI or Secret Service.

The system we live in is white supremacy. Now why on earth would it be a shock that we countenance white supremacists in law enforcement?! Its as natural as the sky is blue.

What can be done about it is a huge issue.

[Hotler]

38. It's not just the S.S., the military and law enforcement. nt

[ffr]

39. Weird coincidence. No wonder Joe Biden doesn't trust his own SS detail.

They're loyal to another calling.

[IronLionZion]

40. Their background checks must not be very thorough

or Oath Keepers weren't considered an extremist group officially. The background investigators really need to find these things.

[patphil]

42. It may not be just the vetting process.

Some of them may have radicalized after joining the Secret Service.
Regardless, anyone in the Secret Service who belongs to any of these terrorist militias needs to be removed.
Same with the DOJ, and military.
There are others who are sympathetic with the far right agenda of overthrowing our Republic, like General Charles Flynn, that can't be allowed to hold sensitive positions.
Whenever they are found, they need to be removed, or at least taken out of command positions.

[onetexan]

49. Which is why there needs recurrence of vetting periodically

[patphil]

50. Agreed.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

43. Rage Against the Machine let us know in 93 that this should be expected

&ab_channel=RATMVEVO

[SergeStorms]

51. All of this harkens back to one single event.

The selection of Donald J. Trump to the office of the presidency.

These agents may have had a proclivity for joining far-right organizations, but until Trump was placed at the top of the heap, none of these organizations were as active and coup-ready as they were before Trump.

Everything reverts back to Trump. The want-to-be dictator, Russian trained? Certainly Russia sympathetic, along with every other fascist dictator on the planet.

Everything Donald Trump touches turns to shit and dies.

[Hortensis]

52. Just to note, the grand old Newsweek died a few years ago now. Unfortunately,

it was then reborn as a sensationalist rag in order to turn better profits. Like we needed another.

A BIG problem is that our brains tend to store what we take in, even things we know to be false, as truth. Then recall this as "information."

Contacts between the Oathkeepers and Secret Service, and perhaps more, have been identified by both our government investigations and investigative journalism and reported on for some while in honest journals. Googling will turn it up.

[keithbvadu2]

55. Secret Service used to be known for integrity.

Secret Service used to be known for integrity.

Even Pence did not trust them.

The Praetorian Guard was formed to protect the emperor but they assassinated a few.

https://www.google.com/search?q=praetorian+guard&rlz=1C1AWUC_enUS1014US1023&oq=Praetorian+Guard&aqs=chrome.0.0i433i512j0i512l9.4136j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[FakeNoose]

56. Those were Obama's years 2009 to 2015

I hope those Secret Service members have been fired by now. Also I hope the feds who did the background checking are also fired because they definitely failed to investigate these people.

[Martin68]

57. Big surprise! Not.

Investigations are in order.

[Midnight Writer]

58. Oath Keepers were not as notorious from 2009 to 2015.

They were pretty popular around my area, if not in membership then in window decals and bumper stickers. If you asked anyone, they said it was a Support the Police initiative. I think the radical nature of the group became more apparent when they became emboldened and empowered by Trump's election.

[wryter2000]

60. Well, duh

Will they finally get fired? And indicted for perjury where appropriate.

[Loge23]

62. No surprise here.

Of course they are. And they're in the FBI, the NSA, CIA, and all over the country in almost every local law enforcement agency.
Have you spoken to a cop lately - even a neighbor or a casual acquaintance?
The NYC Fire Dept. is full of them, probably more there than on NYPD, although it's close.

They all may not be Oath Keepers, per se, but they are all in with the radical far-right whackos.

[Hekate]

63. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

A thorough house-cleaning is long overdue

[roamer65]

65. Makes me wonder about their quality of service in November of 1963.

[Cha]

66. TY!

[SunSeeker]

69. K & R for exposure.

[moniss]

70. Just

dandy. This sort of infiltration of radical ideologists into everyday institutions is not unlike back in the '80's when the evangelical right was moving very aggressively into the Air Force. I can remember reading investigative pieces about that. The militias were also recruiting heavily in the active duty military then and still. Big flashing red lights should have been going off but between the GQP chasing after Clinton and the pressure by people like Falwell and Robertson the subject was played more or less "hands off". So now today the militia/white supremacist groups have big ties no only in the military but also in law enforcement. They work them when the "recruit" is in the military and then when they leave they become cops, FBI, SS, guards etc. While the ones who worked them keep stoking their hate and radicalization.

[orangecrush]

72. Get 'em out

Yesterday.

[llashram]

73. no surprise

this fact...

[NullTuples]

74. Given the events of 1/6, I'm guessing far more are members now than 2009 to 2015

[TigressDem]

75. Is one of them the guy Major bit for wandering into private quarters?

Just curious.

[Kid Berwyn]

76. It's not like they burned all their January 6 records...

…or betrayed their oaths of office or anything.

Huh? Oh oh!

[AlexSFCA]

77. could this be part of the job - to monitor extremist organizations

probably need to be member to read their communications. Wouldn’t be surprised if they are found member of multiple extremists orgs.