Secret Service Defends Giving Gannon/Guckert Access to White House

[Sparkle]

http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000829349

NEW YORK Responding to a request from House Democrats to investigate the approval of James Guckert, a.k.a. Jeff Gannon, to attend White House briefings and presidential press conferences for two years, the U.S. Secret Service has declared that there was “no deviation” from “proper procedures."

Secret Service Deputy Assistant Director Conrad A. Everett defended the vetting in a letter to Rep. John Conyers and Rep. Louise Slaughter, obtained by the Web site, The Raw Story. Guckert is the former reporter for GOPUSA/Talon News who has also been linked to male escort services.

“Mr. Guckert provided the Secret Service with his legal name, rather than his 'pen name,' and was assessed using the same criteria applied to all individuals seeking access to White House briefings,” Everett wrote.

“We would note,” Everett added, “that members of the press who are afforded access to the White House may utilize professional names that differ from their legal names. The Secret Service, however, requires that legal names be provided to enable the screening processes to work effectively.”

-----------------

This article was published March 8th and the Secret Service was defending giving Guckert access back then. Why was this breaking news on Raw Story yesterday?

[FloridaPat]

1. And Maureen Dowd can't get in because???? Not expensive enough?

[htuttle]

2. There were new developments, and E&P has a newer article

Jeff Gannon Exposed, in 'Doonesbury' and New Documents
Published: April 24, 2005 10:30 PM ET
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000893927

(snip)

The Secret Service papers had been requested by two Democrats in Congress, Reps. John Conyers and Louise Slaughter. According to the blog Raw Story, they show that Guckert, who wrote for two pro-GOP Web sites under the pen name Jeff Gannon, made more than 200 appearances at the White House during his two-year tenure.

This included attending 155 press briefings and at least two presidential press conferences, all on a “day pass.” More surprising, according to the documents: Guckert got into the White House three dozen times when there were no scheduled briefings. And on at least 14 occasions, Raw Story reported, “Secret Service records show either the entry or exit time missing.”

(more at link)

That's what was breaking news yesterday.

[jmatthan]

3. As the In and Out logs

do not match with known briefings and events in the White House.

Here is a hooker going in and out of the White House with nothing to do with "Press Briefings"!!

Thom Hartmann covered this in the first 5 minutes of his new Portland Talk programme.

Jacob Matthan
Oulu, Finland

[roseBudd]

5. the question should be...

who was he blowing? Actually considering the time frame it should be who were among the multitudes he was blowing?

[realFedUp]

8. gosh, so many pillsbury dough boys...

so many images I don't want in my brain...

[seemslikeadream]

14. Have I left anyone out?

Jeff Georgie Karl mysteryman Scottie Ken Dickie

[leftchick]

16. OT but Wow rosebud!

That is one excellent site you have there! I am printing my bumperstickers now!
Thanks! :hi:

[roseBudd]

17. TY leftchick! Spread it. Freeway blog it, write it on dollar bills

and watch freeper heads explode. I've already gotten 2 freeper feedbacks to [e-mail]

[leveymg]

4. You skipped over the best part of the story. See below.

Hmm - Either Jeff walks through walls or else he did a lot of overnight "press coverage" at the White House. Find it real hard to believe the Secret Service allows WH day pass holders out the door without signing out. Did Jeff have some "special friends" in the West Wing? Wonder where they slept.

This just gets more interesting.

- M

http://rawstory.com/exclusives/byrne/secret_service_gannon_424.htm

EXCLUSIVE
Secret Service records raise new questions about discredited conservative reporter
By John Byrne| RAW STORY Editor
Advertisement
Updated: Day discovered with two check-ins but no check outs; Other events found on some days without press briefings

READ THE DOCUMENTS

In what is unlikely to stem the controversy surrounding disgraced White House correspondent James Guckert, the Secret Service has furnished logs of the writer’s access to the White House after requests by two Democratic congressmembers.

The documents, obtained by Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) through a Freedom of Information Act request, reveal Guckert had remarkable access to the White House. Though he wrote under the name Jeff Gannon, the records show that he applied with his real name.

Gannon’s ready access to President Bush and his work for a news agency that frequently plagiarized content from other reporters and tailored it to serve a conservative message may raise new questions about the White House’s attempts to seed favorable news coverage. Democrats have sought to paint Guckert in the context of other efforts by the Administration to “plant” positive spin by paying for video news releases and columnists to espouse their views.

Guckert made more than 200 appearances at the White House during his two-year tenure with the fledging conservative websites GOPUSA and Talon News, attending 155 of 196 White House press briefings. He had little to no previous journalism experience, previously worked as a male escort, and was refused a congressional press pass.

Perhaps more notable than the frequency of his attendance, however, is several distinct anomalies about his visits.

Guckert made more than two dozen excursions to the White House when there were no scheduled briefings. On many of these days, the Press Office held press gaggles aboard Air Force One—which raises questions about what Guckert was doing at the White House. On other days, the president held photo opportunities.

On at least fourteen occasions, Secret Service records show either the entry or exit time missing. Generally, the existing entry or exit times correlate with press conferences; on most of these days, the records show that Guckert checked in but was never processed out.

In March, 2003, Guckert left the White House twice on days he had never checked in with the Secret Service. Over the next 22 months, Guckert failed to check out with the Service on fourteen days. On several of these visits, Guckert either entered or exited by a different entry/exit point than his usual one. On one of these days, no briefing was held; on another, he checked in twice but failed to check out.

<SNIP>

[Sydnie]

6. So the article from March 8th admits one of two things

That the Secret Service KNEW he was a gay prostitute and didn't care OR they didn't know because they didn't do a thorough background check. So which is it? And who else uses a "pen" name that is not their own in the press core? I thought pen names were mainly used by novelists not reporters.

They need to answer to the discrepancies in the sign in/sign out times or complete lack of the same.

edit spelling

[King Coal]

7. Does Wolf sign in as Leslie?

[Sydnie]

11. That's a good question

Who else uses a name that is not on the birth certificate that would have access to the briefings? We need to make a list and then see how they sign in. Did they ever sign in and not sign out? With a regular hard pass, they might have, so many with a day pass, with a different name failed to sign in or out?

This just doesn't fit with all the post 911 security that they would allow this weasel to NOT make his movements within the WH crystal clear UNLESS someone gave him a clearance that took the "eyes" off him to begin with.

So, we are back to the biggest question -- who was behind his approval for this pass in the first place. Who called in a favor?

[TWiley]

10. There is a third possibility.

It seems more likely to me that somebody vouched for him, and the SS just went about their normal housekeeping chores.

If Bush wanted him to have access, then the SS would not have denied that request. You can bet on that.

[Sydnie]

12. See my post #11 n/t

[jazzjunkysue]

21. That's what I thought, immediately. Only the potus could get them

to fudge the books.

[alcibiades_mystery]

15. They didn't do a thorough background check

But they did the background check they always do for such requests, which is a criminal history check. Or, at least that according to the letter sent to Conyers/ Slaughter and currently posted at Raw Story, thusly:

http://rawstory.com/exclusives/byrne/secret_service_responds_gannon_425.htm

[FreedomAngel82]

19. I think they knew

They more than likely knew and got the okay to let him through. But from who?

[rocktivity]

9. And don't forget Gannon joined the press corps BEFORE joining Talon

According to a 2/28/03 White House transcript, someone asked Ari Fliescher a question concerning anti-war sentiment being expressed to the schoolchildren of military personnel. (link)

On the Winds Of Change web site on 3/5/03, a poster using the name Jeff Gannon wrote about "a question I asked Ari Fleischer at a White House press briefing on Friday." The question he quoted concerned anti-war sentiment being expressed to the schoolchildren of military personnel! (link)

However, Gannon's FIRST appearance in the White House press room as an employee of the Talon News Service wasn't until the first week of APRIL 2003, and Talon went online LESS THAN A WEEK EARLIER, on March 29! The Secret Service didn't know THAT, EITHER???

:crazy:
rocknation

[MontageOfFreedom]

27. So he was a member of the press corps before Talon News?

My my, the plot just keeps getting thicker and thicker.

[progressoid]

13. I think this may be a dead end

Maybe its because today is a Monday, but I don't see much coming of this. There are LOTS of unanswered questions here, but I foresee a crack down on SS procedures and maybe a minor operative getting reprimanded for not following "procedures". But jimmy jeff and whom ever he's in cahoots with will go scott free.

I'd love to be wrong though.. :)

[wicket]

18. He was out the White House several doze times when there was no briefing

I wonder what he was doing there??

[FreedomAngel82]

20. Including election night

Why would he be there then? :shrug:

[Sydnie]

22. Well, we need to know who else was there from the press that night

Someone took the famous "green shoes" picture. I remember them saying that the press was allowed in and how extraordinary it was for them to be given access to the living quarters that night.

How many others were there and not at their stations or covering local festivities? We need to know if his presence there was unusual or unique at all that night.

[Catherine Vincent]

23. I really would like to know why he was there election night!

[MontageOfFreedom]

24. Situational Irony: Sybil Edmonds gets blockaded more than 10 feet from....

The perimiter of the entire white house, and grand council courtroom. But James Guckert gets daily access in and out of the White House, whenever his such whim desires.

Coincidence?

[Disturbed]

25. The SS checked him out but..

it was fine that he was prostitute with Web Sites offering his services and that he was in criminal violation of not paying taxes in his home state?

What was he doing at the WH 202 times?

[MontageOfFreedom]

26. And actually, he never checked out......

On more than several of those supposed "boogie nights".