Armed Ex-Convict Allowed In elevator With Obama

President Barack Obama rode an elevator this month with an armed security contractor who had three criminal convictions, which is a violation of Secret Service security protocols, according to published reports.

The latest embarrassment for the Secret Service comes after agency Director Julia Pierson on Tuesday took full responsibility for a September 19 breach of security when a man carrying a knife got into the White House.

The Washington Examiner and The Washington Post reported that the elevator incident took place during Obama’s September 16 visit to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

The Post said agents questioned the contractor and discovered his criminal history after he refused to stop video recording the president with a phone camera.

Agents didn’t know he was armed until a supervisor fired the contractor on the spot and the man tued over his gun, the newspapers said.

Really guys? You had one job to do. AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster Source: AP

A Secret Service spokesman confirmed the incident but declined to comment further, citing an ongoing investigation of the event.

Julia Pierson’s grilling before a House of Representatives panel on Tuesday came as a federal grand jury indicted a US Army veteran over a September 19 incident at the White House when he allegedly scaled a fence and made it deep into the presidential mansion armed with a knife.

Omar Gonzalez, 42, was indicted on three counts including unlawfully entering a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon. He is scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday for a detention hearing.

Omar Gonzalez managed to get into the White House armed with a knife. Picture: NEW RIVER VALLEY REGIONAL JAIL Source: AFP

The Washington Post meanwhile reported the fresh breach in which a security contractor with a gun and a criminal record was allowed into an elevator with Obama when the president visited Atlanta, Georgia, in mid-September.

“It’s clear that our security plan was not properly executed,” Secret Service director Pierson told legislators of the September 19 incident, one of the most serious — not to mention embarrassing — White House security breaches during Obama’s presidency.

“This is unacceptable and I take full responsibility. And I will make sure that it does not happen again.” House Democrat Gerald Connolly called the incident — the latest in a string of Secret Service gaffes — the result of a “cascading set of mistakes” that put Obama and his family in jeopardy.

House Homeland Security Committee chairman Michael McCaul said he would introduce legislation to create a “blue-ribbon commission” to conduct “a full, top-to-bottom review” of the Secret Service.

Under review: Members of the US Secret Service Uniformed Division stand guard outside the White House. Picture: AFP PHOTO/Saul Loeb Source: AFP

Detailing the Atlanta breach, the contractor aroused Secret Service conces when he refused to comply with an order to stop recording Obama with his phone camera, the Post said, citing three unidentified sources.

But it was the White House incident which had lawmakers demanding to know how somebody could scale the black iron fence, race 64 metres across a lawn, enter unlocked White House doors, knock down an agent, and run into the East Room — without being stopped.

The man was ultimately tackled by an off-duty Secret Service officer who was coincidentally walking through the premises, the Post reported. A search of a car later revealed hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

Pierson, who has led the Secret Service since March 2013, said a thorough investigation had been launched. She also acknowledged that the elite service has had its “share of challenges” in recent years.

Committee chairman Darrell Issa, a Republican, said it was “amazing and unacceptable” that the intruder had breached “at least ‘five rings’ of security.

“The fact is, the system broke down on September 19, as it did when the Salahis crashed a state dinner in November 2009, or when Oscar Ortega-Heandez successfully shot at the White House on November 2011.” Issa also noted other embarrassing lapses by Secret Service agents, including a 2012 prostitution scandal in Colombia ahead of a visit by Obama, and drunk agents in the Netherlands last March. The 2011 incident was the subject of an explosive recent Post report highlighting how long it took for the Secret Service to determine that the White House was struck by gunfire while one of Obama’s daughters was inside.

Pierson acknowledged that while witnesses saw a man firing shots towards the White House, it was not until “three to four days later” that the Secret Service discovered the mansion had been hit. Republican Jason Chaffetz, who heads the panel’s national security subcommittee, told Pierson that “overwhelming force” - not “restraint” - should be used.

“If the would-be intruder cannot be stopped by a dog or intercepted by a person, perhaps more lethal force is necessary,” he said.

Most White House fence-jumpers - there have been 16 in the past five years - are unarmed and swiftly apprehended.