Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but it seems to me that on a short list of things you wouldn't want Drug Enforcement Administration agents doing, attending parties with hookers paid for by Colombian drug cartels would be right near the top...It kinda looks a like a little bit of a conflict of interests to me....DEA agents had 'sex parties' with prostitutes, watchdog says
Agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration reportedly had “sex parties” with prostitutes hired by drug cartels in Colombia, according to a new inspector general report released by the Justice Department on Thursday.
In addition, Colombian police officers allegedly provided “protection for the DEA agents’ weapons and property during the parties,” the report states.[The Drug dealers, the local police and the DEA...just one big happy family down in Columbia...]Ten DEA agents later admitted attending the parties, and some of the agents received suspensions of two to 10 days.
The stunning allegations are part of an investigation by the Justice Department’s inspector general into claims of sexual harassment and misconduct within DEA; FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the U.S. Marshals Service. The IG’s office found that DEA did not fully cooperate with its probe.
The congressional committee charged with federal oversight is already promising hearings and an investigation into the allegations.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz told POLITICO on Thursday he wanted the agencies involved to swiftly fire those involved and that his panel would immediately start digging into the allegations.
“You can’t ignore this. This is terribly embarrassing and fundamentally not right,” the Utah Republican said. “We need to understand what’s happening with the culture … anytime you bring a foreign national into your room, you’re asking for trouble.”
The congressional committee was first briefed on the IG’s report Wednesday. The House is about to depart on a two-week recess but Chaffetz said there would be major action coming from the Oversight panel when the House returns in April.
“We have to understand issue by issue what is happening. We need to understand how these people are being held accountable. There should be no question about the severity of the punishment,” Chaffetz said. “I don’t care how senior the person is, they are going to have to let these people go.”
The Oversight panel is also investigating allegations into the Secret Service that agents there hired prostitutes in Colombia while advancing a trip for President Barack Obama.
The Oversight committee will hold a hearing on April 14 at 10 a.m., and the DEA and DOJ inspector generals are invited testify.
Moreover,the report states that DEA, ATF and the Marshals Service repeatedly failed to report all risky or improper sexual behavior to security personnel at those agencies.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/d ... z3WSwzBR00
But what is actually even more galling and disturbing to me, (and it's got to be pretty bad to be even more galling and disturbing then DEA agents partying with drug cartel supplied hookers while Colombian police officers helpfully guard their guns and equipment) is the mentality that says, "Oh, so you're a DEA agent who was partying with prostitutes provided by Colombian drug cartels? Well we can't have that; here's a two day suspension..."
That kind of "punishment" suggests to me that this sort of behavior may not be all that uncommon at the DEA, if the people in charge of doling out the penalties were not sufficiently shocked and offended to impose anything more than a laughably weak slap on the wrist...
