The Secret Service is Entrusted to Protect the President, but the Secret Service Still Works for and is Accountable to the American People
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
Background
Colorado Representatives Mark Udall (D-2nd), Diana DeGette (D-1st) and Senator Ken Salazar are calling the Bush administration’s tactics a “cover-up” as the White House continues to hide the identity of the man who impersonated a secret service agent to forcibly remove three Colorado residents from a Presidential town hall on March 21st about privatizing Social Security.
The three Colorado lawmakers wrote a letter to Secret Service Director M. Ralph Basham to request a meeting and called on the agency to reveal details about the agency’s investigation. On March 21st, Karen Bauer, Alex Young, and Leslie Weise – the “Denver 3” – were forcibly removed by a man impersonating a Secret Service agent because the car they drove to the town hall had a bumper sticker that read, “No More Blood for Oil.”
The Secret Service launched an investigation into the matter and determined the man who removed the Denver 3 was not one of their agents. The White House maintains that it has the authority to preemptively deny Americans their Constitutional rights to assemble based on its own suspicion that someone might disrupt an event.
An Open Letter to the United States Secret Service in Reference to the Denver 3
You are public servants entrusted with the dangerous and difficult job to protect the President of the United States. But you do not work for the President. You work on behalf, and are ultimately accountable to the American People. You are not above the law.
As Jim Spencer wrote in a brilliant column for the Denver Post, “The continuing silence makes it look like the White House has manipulated the Secret Service into something the agency must never become: a political arm of the president.”
You know the identity of the man that impersonated one of your very agents and forcibly removed three Americans from their Constitutional right to assemble and listen to their President. And yet you refuse to release this “mystery man’s” identity because your loyalties lie with the President over the American People.
Those three Americans did nothing wrong. Their only “fault” was that they had a bumper sticker that expressed a point of view that the President and his constellation of staff and operatives didn’t approve of. Apparently freedom of speech is now a “crime” if the White House so decrees.
Dissent threatens this President. Diverse opinions threaten this President. That is why the White House has implemented a pervasive system at official taxpayer funded events to screen Americans who might disagree with his views, or even worse, ask the President a tough question – something the mainstream press refuses to do.
Your continued silence and refusal to reveal this “mystery man’s” identity makes you complicit in this cover-up.
Your job is to always uphold the Constitution. Your job is to do the right thing. Your job is not to “cover-up” for the President or protect him from his own public relations crises.
You cannot run away from this crime or hope this story just goes away. BuzzFlash won’t let you, the American People won’t let you, and certainly the brave members of the Denver 3 won’t let you.
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
Additional Background:
Leslie Weise of the Denver Three Asks On Whose Authority They Were Expelled? It Sure Wasn't the Secret Service ... , BuzzFlash Interview
Lawmakers want in on the Secret, DENVER POST - COLUMN (6/10/05)
Democrats fear cover-up in probe of ouster at rally; Salazar, Udall, DeGette, lean on Secret Service, ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS (6/10/05)
Democrats blast response in "Denver Three" inquiries, DENVER POST – NEWS ARTICLE (6/10/05)
Memo from The Denver Three: A Compilation of Information on the White House Excluding Citizens from Taxpayer-Funded Events, April 28, 2005
Jay Bob Klinkerman, Head of Colorado Young Republicans, Is Uncovered by Denver 3 in Connection to Their Forced Removal at Bush Public Event, But Mystery Man Who Allegedly Criminally Impersonated a Secret Service Agent Still Not Revealed by WH, BuzzFlash, April 27, 2004
White House Admits that It -- Not "Zealous Volunteers" -- are keeping American Citizens from Tax-Payer Funded "Bush Town Hall Meetings, BuzzFlash, April 19, 2005
Denver Three puzzle pieces still don't fit (Jim Spencer/The Denver Post)
White House weighs in on ouster: Bush aide: Belief someone plans to disrupt is enough (Ann Imse/Rocky Mountain News)
2 want to find GOP mystery man (Jim Spencer/The Denver Post)
Agents quiet as Denver 3 make noise (Jim Spencer/The Denver Post)
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL