Duties, Priorities, And Arrogance By Rosslyn Smith
There is much buzz today about how news stories of Malia Obama's Spring vacation in Mexico with her classmates keep getting sent down the Internet memory hole. If the story is true, one thing I have not seen mentioned in a lot is the lack of judgment shown by her parents in allowing this trip. It is an international incident waiting to happen.
The situation In Mexico so perilous the State Department has warned Americans to entirely avoid some areas and to remain vigilant even in traditional resorts areas like Acapulco. According to the news stories I read before they disappeared, 25 Secret Service agents and other security personal have accompanied Malia and her classmates. The task of Secret Service personnel becomes more difficult when they operate outside of US territory because their mission is not coterminous with the duties of law enforcement officials in the host nation. When they are protecting the President and other senior government officials on official business they enjoy a certain status under international law, custom and protocol. As the guardians of the President's daughter and her teenybopper friends on a foreign lark, the Secret Service is on much shakier ground should the need to use force arise. While there certainly is a modus operandi with Mexican authorities for security on this trip, that agreement may not be long in effect should Mexican nationals get injured and the local political situation become inflamed.
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