WASHINGTON – The US Secret Service is investigating how two aspiring reality TV stars beat several layers of security to gatecrash President Barack Obama’s first White House state dinner.
The Secret Service, in charge of White House security, is “conducting a comprehensive review of the incident which occurred at the White House State Dinner” in honor of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh late Tuesday, Special Agent Edwin Donovan told AFP.
The couple, Tareq and Michaele Salahi, boasted of turning up at the A-list event on their joint Facebook page with the message “honored to be at the White House for the state dinner in honor of India with President Obama and our First Lady!”
Sporting a black dinner jacket and a flowing red and gold sari respectively, the couple posted photos posing with Vice President Joe Biden, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel - who they mistakenly identified as “Ron Emanuel” - and even three uniformed marines.
The breach could not have come during a more embarrassing occasion for the Secret Service than the dinner attended by 300 high-profile guests - including Obama cabinet members, diplomats and Hollywood celebrities - a major event in Washington’s social calendar.
The White House pulled out all the stops, pitching a large marquee on the south lawn, decking tables with fuchsia and sweet pea arrangements and tall candles and drafting the National Symphony Orchestra to supply music.
An official White House guest list, which did not include the Salahis, read like a who’s who of the US security establishment. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were among those invited. Other notables included film director Steven Spielberg, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, writer Jhumpa Lahiri and spiritual guru Deepak Chopra.
A Secret Service checkpoint “did not follow proper procedures” to ensure that the couple were on the guest list for the event, Donovan said, adding the incident had been referred to the security agency’s internal watchdog, the Office of Professional Responsibility.
He emphasized that the couple, both in their 40s, “went through magnetometers and other levels of security, as did all guests attending the dinner.”
The Washington Post described the Salahis as polo-playing socialites from nearby northern Virginia who could be cast in the forthcoming “The Real Housewives of Washington” reality TV show.
Mahogany Jones, who identified herself as a publicist for the couple, told CNN they had “full clearance to attend the state dinner.”
The pair’s other Facebook photos showed a penchant for posing with the rich and famous, with past shots appearing to show them with polo-loving Prince Charles, President Obama, former president Bill Clinton, former presidential candidate John McCain, television stars Oprah Winfrey and Bill Cosby and former astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
Michaele Salahi’s photos show her as a former Washington Redskins’ cheerleader and posing in a skimpy dress for the cover of a local style magazine.
Former White House homeland security advisor Fran Townsend said the couple could now face jail for lying to federal officials, a federal felony.
“So I hope, in addition to their Facebook account, they have good lawyers,” she told CNN. – AFP