The Secret Service’s Failure of Imagination

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Darrell Castle talks about the Secret Service and its recent series of abject failures to perform its function even modestly let alone in the fashion we have come to expect from that vaunted agency.

Transcription / Notes

THE SECRET SERVICE’S FAILURE OF IMAGINATION

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 9^th day of August in the year of our Lord 2024. I will be talking about the Secret Service and its recent series of abject failures to perform its function even modestly let alone in the fashion we have come to expect from that vaunted agency.

I decided to resist my natural instinct to devote all my attention to the coming war in the Middle East which I predict the United States will find it impossible to resist and instead devote my attention to something just about as dangerous right here at home. Yes indeed, the Secret Service is the rock of the United States Government and is filled with the most highly trained and dedicated agents in all of government, right. Well, no folks that is no longer right as we will see in this Report.

The Service is secret because its agents are supposed to be invisible. They are seen but not seen as part of the landscape you hardly notice them but they are always there. The philosophy of the Service as well as the agents who staff it has been similar to doctors. The doctor doesn’t rejoice in the recovery room when his work is successful, and he doesn’t weep in the cemetery when it isn’t, he just tries to find out what is going on and then keeps going. The agent doesn’t care who he is assigned to protect he just does his job with professionalism and competence putting his own life on the line in the process.

The agents are not responsible for the behavior of their protectees, only their protection. If the protectee cheats on his wife or is a drunk or does business with underworld characters that is not the agent’s concern, only safety. Things seem to have changed at the Service in recent years to the point that we have come to expect lying, stonewalling, and obfuscation regarding the failure of the agents to properly do their jobs. It is very clear right now that the Service has not been forthright with the investigation of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. So, the American people can no longer depend on the Service to protect its assigned protectee unless that person happens to have a political philosophy and agenda in line with the Service and its controllers.

What we can depend on with certainty is the Service lying about its failure to do the job with which the American people have entrusted it. Little by little information about the attempted assassination leaks out from whistle blowers inside the Service and with each revelation it looks worse. The series of security failures was so large that it seems obvious that the Service is no longer even competent let alone elite. Lies follow lies but some are just too obvious. The director of the FBI covering for the Service by saying that perhaps Trump was not shot. His lie was quickly put to rest by doctors but why would he tell such a lie. Perhaps it was a cover for the Service but more likely just a difference of political views.

My favorite lie though, was from the interim director of the Service, or perhaps it wasn’t a lie just simple incompetence and lack of intelligence. When director Kimberly Cheatle resigned a new director or interim director had to be appointed and that was Ronald Rowe, a man with 24 years of service. While being questioned by members of Congress about how this attempted assassination could have happened he said it was “a failure of imagination.” The Service never imagined that anybody would want to take a shot at Donald Trump. The more you think about that response, the more hilarious it becomes and it could take us down a number of rabbit trails, but nevertheless that was his answer.

So, the Service just could not imagine that we live in a dangerous world and that is why its agents were tasked with protecting one of the highest profile and most polarizing people in the world. I can’t help but wonder how such a man managed to rise to his position in the federal government.  A lack of imagination then, caused the Service’s counter sniper team to not attend the pre-event coordination meeting with local law enforcement and had zero communication local SWAT teams.

That is only one of a series of failures and inexplicable things that happened during this event. In fact, it is harder to find things the Service did right than it is to pinpoint mistakes. One wonders if all these failures to properly do the job of protecting Trump were just stupid incompetence or whether something more sinister was going on. In many countries around the globe, those we often refer to as 3^rd world, we would immediately assume the incompetence was a cover-up for something more sinister. Here in America, we are the essential and exceptional nation, and above all that and we walk with pride in the knowledge that we are not just physically and intellectually superior, but morally superior as well.

Government conspiracies are very difficult to pull off as we all know because they usually require the silence of hundreds, perhaps thousands of people, which would be very unlikely. On the other hand, if the people heading the event were as obviously incompetent as Kimberly Cheatle and Robert Rowe who denied resources to Trump’s security detail and assigned inexperienced agents to it, perhaps there is something to it. There are many problems here, but all we know for certain right now is that resources were strangled and substandard agents were assigned to the team. Is that enough to suspect something sinister, perhaps but it gets worse.

What we have been discussing is all pre-shooting failures and incompetence. Once shots were fired the incompetence continued. When the alleged shooter, Thomas Mathew Crooks, was killed by counter sniper fire (apparently) there was an autopsy of his body. By the way isn’t it interesting how the lone nut always has three names. Lee Harvey Oswald, Sirhan Sirhan Sirhan, James Earl Ray and now Thomas Mathew Crooks. Post shooting investigations of the lone nut’s background usually reveal that he was never referred to by three names, but that is how we are to remember him.

I have seen reports of the autopsy from this past week but the Butler County Coroner’s office released cause and manner of death on July 21^st. Cause and manner do not constitute an autopsy as any good lawyer can tell you. It seems that an autopsy has been conducted but it is doubtful whether we will ever be able to see its results. Virtually everything having to do with physical evidence in this case including position of the body, location of wounds, consistent with the sniper rifle that supposedly killed him, all are being guarded like state secrets. Why, nobody seems to know why the public can’t see this evidence. What all the secrecy does is fuel doubt, and cause speculation and a belief that something sinister is going on.

It seems to me that it is incumbent on the part of the Service, its boss Homeland Security, and their boss, the President, to be more forthright with their answers. I’m a little sick of their, go away peon attitude. If you want to know why everything seems like a conspiracy it’s because they make it so. What is the burden of proof here. Is it the criminal standard of beyond a reasonable doubt or the civil standard of its more likely than not because using that standard it’s starting to look bad for the service.

The Service has many other issues that might lead one to the belief that leadership is less than forthright with us. Somebody left cocaine in plain view in the White House but the Service has no clue who did it. The cocaine, it has now been revealed, was in a container which had DNA evidence in it but still we the people are not entitled to know who left and apparently used cocaine in our house. A Secret Service Uniformed Division officer found the bag of cocaine on July 2, 2023, on a Sunday while the President was in Camp David. The ensuing dispute between the Uniformed Division, the Forensics Services Division, and the Secret Service leadership became public knowledge. The leadership, meaning Kimberly Cheatle, apparently wanted to protect her friends and boss in the Biden family but the other divisions refused to go along. That is the story now that Kimberly Cheatle is no longer the director.

Secret Service Agents took Vice President-elect Harris to the DNC, that’s the Democrat National Committee, before the January 6^th protest, riot, insurrection, or whatever you choose to call it and whatever you choose to believe.  I realize that it is extremely hard to discern what to believe and too often it comes down to a person’s pre-conceived political biases. The sketchy information, otherwise known as lies, is revealed to us piecemeal and in a fashion that tells us what to believe. For example, the pipe bomb placed on the bench outside DNC headquarters that day was clearly visible on video. Children played near it but no one stopped them. The supposed bomb was of the comic book variety with a timer like a large kitchen clock.

So, for the Service and for this government some questions need to be answered. There are many others but some that occur to me are these. Was the pipe bomb inert or active. Why was EOD people not called to dispose of the bomb. If it was an active as opposed to inert bomb, why didn’t the explosive detection dogs find it. Why did it take the Service more than a year to reply to the Inspector General’s request for January 6^th documents. When the Vice President-Elect said she felt threatened or that her life was in danger, why did it take a year to learn that she was not even in the capitol complex that day.  Why did the Service and its agents and leadership sit by while people they knew to be innocent were given enhanced sentences because of a threat to the Vice President-Elect.

There are many questions to be asked and answered about the attempted assassination as well as cocaine gate and insurrection gate. Once Director Cheatle fell on her sword, why was no one fired for incompetence. The answer is the same shuffling one that we always get and that is that the investigation is ongoing, etc. Some in congress and even some in the conservative press are suggesting that because of this administration’s emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) the standards may have been lowered to the level of incompetence in favor of identity politics.

The Service’s web site is revealing and might give one reason to think that might just be the case. Its various categories for recruitment include outreach to African Americans, Pacific Islanders, Hispanic, Indigenous Nations, Federal Women’s Program. LGBTQ, Persons with Disabilities/Disabled Veteran, Office of the Ombudsman, and Inclusion and Engagement Council. What is missing from this list is merit and there is nothing about being willing to take the bullet meant for the protectee.

This makes me think that morale and job satisfaction among all those dedicated dark suits and dark glasses can’t be very high. To be thought of as an incompetent failure must be difficult for them and being politically correct and loyal like a good lapdog is not much of a compromise. Whatever happened to honor and the refusal to compromise or what used to be known as character and integrity.

Finally, folks, the lack of imagination the interim director blamed for this debacle cost a man his life and deprived his family of his love, provision, and protection. It also caused several people to be wounded and a presidential candidate to be wounded and almost killed. Is the destruction and dissolution of our society planned. Quoting the interim director, the investigation is still ongoing, etc.

At least that’s the way I see it,

Until next time folks,

This is Darrell Castle,

Thanks for listening.