State dinner crashers greeted President Obama

[First thought that came to mind after hearing this was the season finale of Day 2 on '24' - President Palmer is shaking hands with many of the onlookers, one of them being a woman hired in Day 1 to assassinate Palmer. She slips a deadly virus into his hand, and President Palmer collapses to the ground, panting. - WK]


By Jason Horowitz, Roxanne Roberts and Michael Shear Washington Post Staff Writers November 27, 2009

Getting to the president is supposed to be tougher than this.

According to a White House official, Michaele and Tareq Salahi, the couple previously best known for auditioning for a Bravo reality television show, not only got through various Secret Service checkpoints at Tuesday night's state dinner but also went through the receiving line and personally greeted President Obama. Their high-profile home invasion penetrated the most vaunted security apparatus on Earth, and the Secret Service issued its apologia on the subject late Friday.

A statement issued by Director Mark Sullivan said the agency was "deeply concerned and embarrassed by the circumstances surrounding the State Dinner" and added that "the preliminary findings of our internal investigation have determined established protocols were not followed at an initial checkpoint, verifying that two individuals were on the guest list."

Sullivan added, "Although these individuals went through magnetometers and other levels of screening, they should have been prohibited from entering the event entirely. That failing is ours."