Subject: Re: More on SS Agents Date: Tue, 19 May 1998 15:23:27 -0400 From: KFITZ Organization: Prodigy Internet Newsgroups: startext.jfk Another interesting article on the Starr/SS conflict and includes some quotes from Dr. Melanson. Kathlee Saturday, May. 16, 1998 Star-Telegram Agents in the line of fire argue for keeping secrets By Peter Baker The Washington Post WASHINGTON -- By the time the shots rang out, there was nothing Timothy McCarthy could do but get in the way. Which he did. With his arms and legs extended, the Secret Service agent made himself a target and a bullet intended for President Ronald Reagan struck him instead. That was March 1981. At the moment John Hinckley Jr. opened fire, McCarthy was standing next to Reagan. "If the president had said to me, "Tim, I have to have a private conversation with Mike Deaver, would you just step forward a little so you won't hear?' " McCarthy said, "the round that hit me would have hit the president." The lessons the Secret Service has drawn from those few seconds of pandemonium are at the heart of an unprecedented legal battle showcased publicly for the first time Thursday in a federal courtroom. Should agents who guard President Clinton be forced to testify in the Monica S. Lewinsky investigation? If they are, will future presidents fear being overheard so much that they push their guardians away? Could this give an assassin an opportunity to kill the nation's leader? It is an argument of emotion vs. law. Neither statute nor precedent exists to block law enforcement officers from providing evidence in a criminal investigation. During Thursday's court hearing on his bid to compel agents to testify, independent counsel Kenneth Starr said they "cannot blind themselves to evidence of possible violations of law." But, citing experiences such as McCarthy's outside the Washington Hilton Hotel 17 years ago, Secret Service Director Lewis Merletti has privately predicted that cracking the agency's longstanding tradition of secrecy will result in the death of a president. A Justice Department lawyer echoed that view in open court Thursday, warning darkly, "It doesn't take much before you run the risk of assassination." In the next few weeks, Chief U.S. District Judge Norma Holloway Johnson -- and possibly jurists up to the Supreme Court -- will have to decide whether that assessment is alarming or alarmist. While the Secret Service has never before claimed a "protective privilege" to shield its agents from testifying, the fight with Starr is the latest skirmish in a perennial battle for the agency. Throughout its 97-year history of protecting presidents, the service has struggled to get close enough to stand in harm's way, often against the wishes of the people guarded by its agents. Eleanor Roosevelt refused to accept protection, prompting agents to tail her undercover. Lyndon Johnson used to order his driver to speed up while tooling around his Texas ranch in order to lose his security detail. Reagan once insisted on walking across Lafayette Park to church with agents at a distance, though the winter cold changed his plans. "There's a constant tension between the president and the Secret Service," said Philip Melanson, a political scientist at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and author of a book on the Secret Service. "They feel this is an invasion on their privacy even when they're not doing anything wrong." Many agents have stories about presidents or other dignitaries bristling at their constant, hovering presence, particularly at the beginning of an administration when the newly inaugurated chief executive wants to demonstrate a continuing personal connection with the electorate. John R. Simpson, the longtime Secret Service director who retired in 1992, recalled one "protectee" demanding to know, "Are you here as a spy?" Soon after moving into the White House, Hillary Rodham Clinton reportedly blamed the Secret Service for spreading a rumor that she had thrown a lamp at her husband. In his book, Protecting the President, the late agent Dennis V.N. McCarthy wrote, "This constant proximity can get on the nerves of both the Chief Executive and the agents who have to live with him." But proximity is central to the Secret Service mission. Without it, some agents say, they cannot guarantee anyone's safety. Under federal law, the president cannot turn down Secret Service protection, but he can set limits, such as deciding how close agents can get and whether he will go to places they think are unsafe. "If you don't have trust and confidence, you don't have proximity," said Edward Walsh, a retired agent who protected Johnson and Richard M. Nixon. "If you don't have proximity, you have an open door. ... Some bad guy is going to walk through that open door." While that may be the consensus view at the Secret Service, it is not universal even among the fraternity. Several other former agents scoff at the notion that presidents would put their lives at risk to cover up criminal conduct. "That's nonsense," said Tony Sherman, one of the four retired Secret Service agents who provided tales of John F. Kennedy's philandering to author Seymour Hersh for a book published last year. "Presidents ask agents to step aside any time they are too close when they play golf. The [security] system is difficult to overcome. I don't think a president will think, "The guys are going to blab about whatever I say.' " The Secret Service was founded in 1865 not for security but to combat counterfeiters rampant in the post-Civil War era. It was not until William McKinley's assassination in 1901 that the government assigned the service the mission of guarding the commander-in-chief. In the years since, it also has been given the task of protecting their families, their vice presidents, their predecessors and their would-be successors, as well as their visiting foreign counterparts. To stay close to those they are guarding, Secret Service agents say they will go to unusual lengths, even disguising themselves to blend into events around them. They have dressed as soldiers, doctors, college professors and construction workers. When a president throws out the first baseball of the season, one of the umpires may be an agent. During a U.S. tour by Pope John Paul II, an agent even posed as a priest, complete with collar -- and the telltale radio plug in his ear. While Clinton shakes hands along a rope line, an agent typically stands just behind him with hands on the president's hips, ready to pick him up, pull him away or push him down at a moment's notice. Another agent may be holding near the president what appears to be a briefcase but is actually a hand-held bulletproof shield Debra Conway wrote: > > http://www.msnbc.com/news/149806.asp > > IN A RARE open court proceeding arising from Starr’s investigation > of the president, the independent counsel squared off with Gary Grindler, a > deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s civil division, > over the privilege claim. > “The issue is the assassination of presidents of the United States,” > Grindler said, saying that requiring the agents to testify would hurt their > ability to protect the president. > Requiring the Secret Service testimony would damage “the trust and > the confidence of the president in the ability of the Secret Service to step > in and protect the president against assassination,” he added. > Grindler also cited President John F. Kennedy’s instructions to Secret > Service agents not to ride on the bumper of his car prior to his 1963 > assassination as evidence of the dire consequences that could result from > added distance between protectors and president. > Chief U.S. District Judge Norma Holloway Johnson appeared > skeptical of Grindler’s argument, saying, “I don’t see it.” > For his part, Starr argued that there is “no authority, none, zero” in the law > “for the privilege being sought today.” > > more on web site > -- > JFK Lancer Productions & Publications > "Serving the research community, educating a new generation." > http://www.jfklancer.com > Updated regularly > > 1998 November In Dallas Conference, November 19-22 > http://www.jfklancer.com/Dallas.html > > JFK Lancer Scholarship is accepting applications now! > http://www.jfklancer.com/Scholarship.html