Life Inside the Bubble: Why a Top-Ranked Secret Service Agent Walked Away From It All
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I was honored to serve my country as a special agent with the Secret Service, but living within the bubble of Washington, DC, leaves scars that are a permanent reminder of a broken system—a system that incentivizes acquiescence at the expense of both the American public and the dedicated cadre of federal employees who largely sought out public service as a means to serve, not harm, their fellow Americans.
I saw this numerous times in my career and distinctly recall asking why we transferred agents around the country to different field offices at great financial cost despite any obvious need for it. I was told, “That’s the way we have always done it.”
As the late economist Milton Friedman once stated, “When everybody owns something, nobody owns it, and nobody has a direct interest in maintaining or improving its condition.”
Although Friedman was referring to property, the principle of which he speaks is perfectly applicable to the fact that our ever-expanding government has created a system where very few people have any direct personal interest in improving its functioning. It is ironic that some political opportunists have sold the American public on the idea that a growing government means a more caring, benevolent government and a more prosperous society. The sad reality is that a growing government has led to a more callous, detached government, where the diffusion of responsibility throughout the exploding legions of new bureaucrats has led to bad decision making.
We can fix this, but it is going to require a new era of citizen activism, an activism where we take responsibility for a better government and we stop relying on those inside the bubble to fix the mess they have created. Call the offices of your elected officials until you receive the answers you are looking for. Show up at town hall meetings and refuse to be silenced until your questions are answered. Write letters to your local newspapers challenging the status quo. Use the power of social media to spread your message. Do not remain silent, because silence is complicity.
But most important of all, do not lose hope. This country is exceptional because it is not simply a group of people or a piece of land—it is the embodiment of an idea. It is an idea that heroic men and women for generations have fought and died for, sacrificing their lives knowing that our incomparable American freedom and our exceptional degree of individual liberty were unique to this place. We can fix this; we can turn this ship around. But it all begins with you.
AFTERWORD
THE IDEA FOR THIS BOOK came about because of a paradox I encountered during my time with the Secret Service. Having worked with legions of dedicated and patriotic military personnel, federal law-enforcement agents, and political staffers who genuinely cared about their country and its citizens, I wondered why a government composed of genuinely good people continues to get it wrong. In light of the bevy of scandals that broke subsequent to the completion of this book, the question has become even more pressing.
My answer to this question is made clear in the final chapters, where I state that the growing government bureaucracy has diffused responsibility both vertically and horizontally so that the idea of responsibility has lost all of its meaning. When everyone takes a small bite of the decision-making pie, no one is really responsible when the baker asks, “Who ate my pie?”
The recent scandal within the Internal Revenue Service, where ideologically conservative groups were targeted by the agency, is yet another troubling example of this phenomenon. I have no doubt that the employees who were instructed to target these groups felt that by the time the orders to do so reached their desks, it must have been legal and in compliance with agency regulations given the many layers of bureaucratic management that they perceived as vetting the decision. This troubling development should serve as a wake-up call to every American to demand change from a government they finance through tax dollars earned through their hard work. Being targeted by a government you have paid for is a moral travesty, and unfortunately the trend line, under the current conditions of seemingly endless bureaucratic growth, is moving in the wrong direction.
The IRS is not the only government agency that has landed on the front pages due to scandal. The leaks about the monitoring of Americans by our National Security Agency is another example of this paradox. Living in Maryland, I have been surrounded by employees of the NSA for many years, and I can personally attest to their individual commitment to the United States of America and the principles of freedom. Yet they have been instructed by their management to comply with a program that breaks down the essential contract between US citizens and their government that has made the United States the greatest country in the long history of civilized man. The central tenet of that contract is a liberty based on the principle that the line between the private and the public self is drawn by the citizen, not the government. In totalitarian regimes, there is no private self. Everyone is a potential agent of the government, and informing on your neighbor is encouraged to ensure that every citizen understands that he is part of a “collective.” Such an environment can be enforced only when there is no wall between the individual and the government. In our unique, liberty-loving society, that essential contract—that the freedom of the individual has primacy over the authority of the state—has led us to the greatest standard of living and the most prosperous conditions in human history.
When we leave the house each morning and open our front doors, we have made a conscious decision to leave the private self behind and allow the world to see the public self again, a line drawn by us. These are always going to be different masks that we all wear, the private and the public one. The common retort I hear from defenders of government monitoring is, “If you are doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to be concerned about.” My experience inside the bubble has conclusively led me to believe that this is a nonsensical argument. We all do something wrong sometimes, since we are all fallible human beings. As long as our private “wrongs” do not impact on the civil liberties of others and do not violate any laws, control of when and if they are made public should be the exclusive domain of the individual, not the government.
To accentuate this point, I want to share a hypothetical example that sounds unlikely only to those who place a blind trust in their government. It is only a matter of time before an innocent American who may have information of value to the government—information he thought was private—sees it used against him as leverage to get him to cooperate. The point is not whether he should or should not cooperate but that information he thought was the exclusive purview of the private self in a free society was not private at all, and it was the government that made that determination. This will fracture the fabric of our free society and make us all unwilling accomplices to an ongoing federal investigation that could have been solved using the methods I describe in this book’s final chapters rather than collecting the private communications of millions of individuals.
My years of experience with information and the government lead me to believe that when you forfeit your personal information without a fight, it will be abused. It is only a matter of when, not if.
Turning the trend line back toward liberty is going to require a new degree of citizen activism. Apathy is the weapon of choice for the supporters of these government intrusions into your private life. In my experience, there is nothing that disturbs the White House or Congress more than a flood of calls to the switchboard on a particular issue. This requires a commitment from the electorate to take the time to make these calls to their elected representatives and to demand a change in direction. Please do not fall victim to the “one person cannot make a difference” meme. Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the army of American citizens who took to the streets during the struggle for civil rights refused to accept the status quo and changed the course of American history for the better. You can make a difference if you commit yourself to action. The only power in words is to motivate people to action. A better tomorrow awaits your response.
INDEX
A
ABC (television), 58–59
Accountability Review Board, 146, 166, 167
action
how to take, 169, 172
on the importance of political, 128–29
Affleck, Ben, 30
Afghanistan, 92–97, 104, 112, 139, 142
Air Force One, 53, 88–89, 91, 93, 95–97, 122
al-Qaeda, 142, 146
Ambrose, Gregory, 6
Ansar al-Sharia (AAS), 146
AOP (assault on principal) training, 21
Arellanes, Manuel Osario, 131
ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Fire arms, and Explosives), 131, 133–37, 167
Avila, Jaime, 135
B
Bali bombing of 2002, 77
Baltimore Sun, 105
Beck, Glenn, 116
Benghazi scandal, v, 129, 138–51, 164, 165, 166, 167
Blackhawk Down incident, 59
Bongino, Amelia (author’s daughter), 108
Bongino, Isabel (author’s daughter), 81–82, 92, 108, 126
Bongino, Jim (author’s brother), vii, 1, 2, 3
Bongino, Joseph (author’s brother), vii, 1, 2, 3, 10, 33, 119–22
Bongino, John (author’s father), 1, 2, 6, 17, 33, 121
Bongino, Judy (author’s mother, née Cramer), 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 17, 28
Bongino, Paula (author’s wife), vi, 36, 42–43, 50, 53, 56, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 87, 88, 92, 107, 108, 109, 126
Boston Marathon bombing, v, 69, 102, 129, 153–58, 165, 167
BP oil spill, 84, 85, 87
Breuer, Lanny, 134, 135
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Fire arms, and Explosives (ATF). See ATF
Bush, Barbara (daughter of George W.), 57
Bush, George W., 30, 52, 53, 57, 63, 64, 65, 66–67, 91, 104–5
Bush, Jenna (daughter of George W.), 53–60
Bush, Laura, 59, 60, 65, 66
C
Camp Arifjan, on transporting dignitaries to, 65
Cardin, Ben, 48, 107, 125, 126
Casey, Sean, 118, 120
Cavuto, Neil, author’s interview with, 113–14
Central Intelligence Agency. See CIA
Chaffetz, Jason, 146
Champion, Robert, 136
Chechen separatist movement, 154
Chertoff, Michael, 48–50
CIA
attack on annex in Benghazi. See Benghazi scandal
notification by FSB of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s suspected radical ties, 158
personnel with knowledge of the Benghazi affair, unprecedented internal effort to ensure the silence of, 150
citizen activism, 128–29, 169, 172
Clinton, Bill, 20, 25, 26, 27, 29
Clinton, Hillary, 25–30, 63, 144, 148
CNN reports on unprecedented internal effort to ensure the silence of CIA personnel with knowledge of the Benghazi affair, 150
conservative group targeting by IRS, 171
Cooley, Joe, 135–36
credit card fraud, 20
Cretz, Gene, 141
D
Dauphin Island, AL, 87
Delta Force, 97, 138–39
DeMint, Jim, 125
Dempsey, Martin E., 147
Department of Justice (US), 131, 134, 135, 136, 137, 165
Dignitary Protective Division (DPD), 47–49, 53
Dodson, John, 133
Doherty, Glen, 142
Douglas, Richard, 117, 119
“Dumpster diving,” 21
E
Eban, Katherine, 133
Ehrlich, Robert (governor), 43
Eikenberry, Paul, 94
Elliker, Shari (WBAL radio), 112
F
“Fast and Furious,” v, 129, 130–37, 165, 167
FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), 5, 15, 61, 101, 158, 167, 168
Guardian Database, 157
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC), 17–20
FEST (Foreign Emergency Support Team)’s lack of action in Benghazi situation, 144–45
firearms
recovered from crime scenes in California and sourced to Arizona, 137
recovered from crime scenes in Texas and sourced to Arizona, 136
Fish and Wildlife Service, 102
Fox and Friends, 114
Fox News Channel, 79, 113
Friedman, Milton, 168
FSB (formerly KGB), 158
G
Gaddafi, Muammar, 147
Gerlach, Jim, 150
Gibbons, Jim, viii, 118, 126
Gibbs, Robert, 79
Gil, Darren, 134
Giuliani, Rudy, 26, 27
Gore, Al, 30
Guardian Database (FBI), 157
H
Harris, Andy, 126
Hicks, Gregory, 146, 150
Hoyer, Steny (Rep.), 35
Huffington Post, 121
Hurley, Emory, 133
I
Iceland volcanic eruption, 84
improvised explosives devices (IEDs), 161
Inauguration Day 2009, 70–71
Indonesia, 76–82, 84–86, 88–92, 94, 138
homegrown terrorist network in Jemaah Islamiyah, 77
Internal Revenue Service scandal, 171
Internet video allegedly disrespecting Muhammad, 145, 147–48
Iranian hostage crisis of 1979, 144
IRS scandal regarding conservative group target, 171
Israel, 115–16
Issa, Daniel (Rep.), 133
J
Joint Staff Report for Congress (on weapons), 136, 137
K
Kaczynski, Lech, 83
Kerry, John, 150
King, Martin Luther, Jr., 173
Kingston, Jamaica, on the first daughter’s visit in, 58–59
Kumor, Daniel (Chief), 134
L
Lamb, Charlene, 141–42, 143
law-enforcement personnel
current number of federal, 102
located within agencies with little investigative control (statistic), 102
Lazio, Rick, 27
lead advance assignments, 69, 75–76, 84, 86–87, 93, 104
Lee, Mike (senator), viii, ix, 116
limousine(s), the president’s, 27, 60–61, 70
Lone Wolf Trading Company (Glendale, AZ), 131
M
MacAllister, Hope, 133
marijuana, 11
McCain, John, 71
media spin with regard to threats against the president, 99–100
Medvedev, Dmitry, 82
Miller, Craig, 34–35
Moretti, John, 141
Mount Merapi, 88, 90
Muhammad, Internet video allegedly disrespecting, 145, 147–48
Muslims in the United States, number of, 153
N
Napolitano, Janet, 167
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 102
Newell, William, 137
New York City Police Department (NYPD), 161
author’s career at, 5–16, 132
Precincts
32nd, 8
75th, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15
111th, 7
114th, 7
9/11, 31–36, 37, 38, 50, 102, 109, 155, 167
Nordstrom, Eric, 141–42, 143
Norman, Marciano (general), 78, 80, 85, 88
NSA (National Security Agency) monitoring of US citizens, 171
O
Obama, Barack, iv, 69–79, 82, 83–84, 85, 87–92, 94–97, 99, 100, 104, 106, 116, 123, 129, 139, 142, 143, 145, 147, 153, 160
speech calling for the return to Israel’s 1967 borders, 116
Obama, Michelle, 71
Obamacare, 79, 84, 106
Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta (1996), 154–55
O’Sullivan, Daniel, 12
Oval Office speech, 64, 104
P–Q
Panetta, Leon, 147
Paris, France, on President Bush’s visit to, 66–67, 91
Parks, Rosa, 173
Paspampres, 78
&n
bsp; Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. See Obamacare
PATRIOT Act, 161
Petra, Jordan, on the first lady’s visit in, 65–66
Petraeus, David, 65, 93–94
political activism, 128–29, 169, 172
Prague, Czech Republic, 82–84, 91
president of the United States (see also individual presidents by name)
not just a man, but the embodiment of executive branch, 94
on protecting the, 21, 68–80. See also Presidential Protective Division (PPD)
presidential
helicopter (Marine One), 62, 63, 75
limousine(s), 27, 60–61, 70
Presidential Inaugural Committee, 68
Presidential Protective Division (PPD), iv, 25–26, 29, 44, 46, 50, 51–59, 61–64, 68–80, 82, 84–92, 96, 98
Priebus, Reince, 120
probable cause
arrests, 132–35
process of establishing, 132
Protective Intelligence Unit, 100
R
race, purported threats against Obama because of his, 99, 100
Reagan, Ronald, 49, 64
rental car fraud case in Maryland, 105–6
Rice, Condoleezza, 65
Rice, Susan, 148–49
Roberts, Thomas, 121
Rudolph, Eric, 154–55
S
Sawyer, Diane, 58
Secret Service
best-known responsibility of, 21
highest level of operational achievement in, 68