President Obama arrives in Brussels… with a 900-person entourage
Wednesday,
Mar 26, 2014 at 10:12 AM PDT
While
First Lady Michelle Obama enjoys her $8,400/night suite at the
five-star Westin Hotel in Chaoyang, President Obama is running up
quite the tab in Europe. According to The
Guardian, the President’s trip to Brussels required a
900-person entourage and cost the city about $10.4 million – no
word on how much money the American taxpayer are on the hook for.
As
Belgium’s capital and host to the EU and Nato, Brussels is used to
deploying heavy security when big names pop by. But US President
Barack Obama’s visit on Tuesday will strain the city like never
before with €10m ($10.4m, £8.4m) of Belgian money being spent to
cover his 24 hours in the country.
The
president will arrive on Tuesday night with a 900-strong entourage,
including 45 vehicles and three cargo planes. Advance security teams
orchestrating every last detail have combed Brussels already,
checking the sewers and the major hospitals, while American military
helicopters were last week given the green light for overflights.
The
city’s four-stage security scale will be raised from two to three
during the visit, Obama’s first to the country. A tight cordon will
surround The Hotel, the 27-storey former Hilton in the Toison d’Or
shopping district where the president will spend the night.
“That
might be bigger than Puffy Combs,” Pat joked of the President’s
entourage.
Brussels
mayor Yvan Mayeur explained typical visits and summits run the city
about $690,000 (€500,000) in extra police, military and transport
expenses. But “you can multiply that figure by 20” Mayeur said of
President Obama’s trip.
To
add insult to injury, the Secret Service is once again making
headlines for inappropriate behavior. TheWashington
Post reports three agents were sent home ahead of President
Obama’s arrival in the Netherlands after one agent was found “drunk
and passed out” in an Amsterdam hotel.
“I
have never in my life seen such behavior from the Secret Service,”
Glenn said. “We have seen it over and over and over again in this
regime – the Secret Service misbehaving and behaving badly.”
The
agents sent home from Amsterdam were placed on administrative leave,
according to The Washington Post, which first reported the
disciplinary action. The newspaper said all three were on the Counter
Assault Team, which defends the president if he comes under attack,
and that one agent was a “team leader.”
One
agent was discovered highly intoxicated by staff at a hotel, who
reported it to the U.S. Embassy, said a person familiar with the
situation, who wasn’t authorized to discuss the alleged behavior on
the record and demanded anonymity. The other two agents were deemed
complicit because they didn’t intervene despite being in a position
to assist the drunken agent or tamp down his behavior, the person
said.
While
Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said the incident was prior to
the President’s arrival and did not compromise the his security in
any way, Glenn believes this is a larger issue that must be
addressed.
“That
puts our President in peril. It puts the United States of America in
jeopardy. This is a bell I have been ringing before this guy was even
elected. Secret Service, you’ve got to do your job,” Glenn
concluded. “This is a very, very bad thing. I think the Secret
Service has gone dark. I really do. I hate to say that. I love these
guys. But I fear they have gone dark… It’s not one bad apple. One
bad apple does spoil the whole bunch, girl. I’m sorry… Somebody
has got to go in there and clean that rat’s nest out.”
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