Secret Service Responds to Charges of Lax Gun Checks at Obama Rally in Dallas
February 23, 2008Election '08
(UPDATE: Jack Douglas of the Star-Telegram has a follow up to his original story. Readers have flooded the comments of the original article with stories of equally lax security at other events -- I've included some below the fold.)
It takes a lot to get the Secret Service to respond. Based on this statement, someone is not telling the truth, as the USSS challenges the veracity of the Dallas law enforcement's observations reported in the Star-Telegram. Is this a satisfactory explanation? (UPI):
The U.S. Secret Service Friday denied reports that security measures at a recent Barack Obama rally in Texas were relaxed or deviated from established plans.
Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren said there was no order from the Secret Service to stop screening people going to the Obama rally Wednesday at Dallas's Reunion Arena. He said that the event's security plans didn't involve having each participant pass through a magnetometer, as may be the case at other events.
The Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram reported that some police at the event expressed concern about people not passing through metal detectors.
"Any allegations to the fact that we had suspended screening or deviated from the original security plan would be entirely inaccurate," Zahren said.
Obama, D-Ill., spoke before some 17,000 supporters at the rally ahead of the March 4 primary election in Texas. There were no security-related incidents.
While stressing that security preparations are different for each venue and event, Zahren said officials were happy with the security plan for the rally at Reunion Arena and the way it was implemented.
Limited use of metal detectors "in no way constituted a security lapse at this venue," Zahren said, adding that the security measures were developed with Dallas-area law enforcement personnel.Of course this doesn't address all of the stories about other venues where little or no screening occurred. Here's one email I received today, it's not unlike like some of the accounts reported by other folks in the DKos thread on this topic.
