Secret Service Discovered Salahis' White House Breach Over Facebook

In a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing regarding Michaele and Tariq Salahi's White House party crashing, Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan reportedly confessed that his agency only learned of the breach through Facebook.

The Washington Examiner reports Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton's questioning of Sullivan:

"Did you discover it through their Facebook, or was it your own discovery that some interlopers had entered?"

"We did not discover that on our own." Sullivan replied. "We were advised of it the following day."

"Advised by who, sir?" Norton inquired.

"Facebook."

See Michaele Salahi's Facebook fan page here. As HuffPostTech previously reported, "the couple's shared Facebook profile have 743 photos and 14 videos, and you don't need to be Facebook friends with Tareq and Michaele to see them. Just click away."

On November 25, Michaele Salahi posted this status update, along with photos:

I was honored to be invited to attend the First State Dinner hosted by President Obama & the First Lady to honor India. In June 2010, the America's Polo Cup will be between INDIA & the UNITED STATES. Please join me in this cultural celebration of politics, diplomacy, fashion, sports, entertainment & family fun.

The pictures posted on Facebook show Salahi posing with President Obama, marines, and other guests at the White House state dinner.

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Comments

[demnaz]

03:27 AM on 12/06/2009

Can someone please tell me if they were seated for dinner?
If they left before seating then they knew they weren’t invited.
If they were seated, who’s place did they take?
Doesn’t the Secret Service do a head count?

[machivellianX]

08:37 PM on 12/05/2009

this is getting stupid and old, these people were never a threat, they are just whoring elitists, nothing less, nothing more. I'm sure they knew people at this event, those people also helped them get in. There is multiple hurdles you have to overcome to end up at one of these events. Don't tell me that one security person checking off names fumbled, nonsense, if someone does fall it's a scapegoat for what is likely a case of multiple individuals that helped these clowns get in.

[Mark Twaine]

07:49 AM on 12/04/2009

So what are they going to do about it?

[MrBurlesk]

07:33 AM on 12/04/2009

Well, it's pretty clear to me the Salahi's were there to try to promote their polo tournament since India is playing the USA this year and this polo tournament thing is their pet project. Read up on their sleazy handling of past tournaments, however, and you begin to get the sense that these slick grifters may be in a heap of trouble for running a fraudulent non-profit org (among other things). This "party crash" incident appears only to be the tip of a very big, festering pimple. The fame whores are getting their 15 minutes and it isn't at all very pretty.

[Alan Papacito]

12:31 AM on 12/05/2009

Great post! I loved the graphic and spot on language. I too believe that the Valdemorts may not be in legal jeopardy for the WH security staff bungling their admittance to the WH event, however, the notoriety they received and the subsequent scrutiny into every aspect of their allegedly sleazy, grifting lives will ultimately lead to their being in legal jeopardy for their other sleazy grifting activities.

Request to all law enforcement agencies: Please leave no stone unturned! I don't want to see these two fame hos benefiting financially from their miserable behavior.

For amusement, be sure to read up on her claiming to be a Redskins Cheerleader and showing up to alumni events where no one knew her, and oddly enough, she didn't know any of the routines: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/02/AR2009120203781.html

[nikky]

09:40 PM on 12/03/2009

i am glad he knows them well enough to have 100% faith in them i don't have it

[jamo]

09:29 PM on 12/03/2009

♪♫♪♫♥♪♫♪♫♪♫♥♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♥ ♫♥♪ ♪♫♪♫♥♪♫♪♫♪♫♥♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♥ ♫♥♪
SALAHI....O...O, SALAHI...O-O-O.

[thegirlnextdoor]

08:45 PM on 12/03/2009

She has a facebook "fan page"?????
I thought that was for folks who actually did something, like bands, or writers or politicians. You know, people who actually DO something, not just Wanna Be's.

[Imzadi]

07:01 AM on 12/04/2009

It's for any self-absorbed shallow person.

[thegirlnextdoor]

11:51 AM on 12/04/2009

Not where I come from. Our arts community uses facebook very effectively. I have two fan pages, one for my band and one for my photography. It is how our town keeps up with what's up. Music, theatre, opera. Events of all kinds.
But yeah, you are probably quite right universally.

[red33]

08:37 PM on 12/03/2009

Salamis to jail, eh?

[elliot1]

08:17 PM on 12/03/2009

Ok.. what really upsets me is that 3 people are now in jeopardy of losing a job they have worked hard to get, while these two bozos, carry on doing photo shoots in DC at Halcyon House the same day they claim they were "devastated" on the Today show. Seriously, that is an injustice.

[ChangeurMind]

07:25 PM on 12/03/2009

We now know it wasn't the secret service. It was Rogers who's job was to be at the post checking guests. Not being a "guest" herself.

[SpankedMeGood]

08:17 PM on 12/03/2009

Well, you now know something different from what the Secret Service manager knows. By the way, your grammar is downright pitiful.

[Nelson Jacobsen]

01:10 PM on 12/04/2009

When there is a State dinner next time have someone from the staff at the door it is what they are being paid to do. Having been through the process the fact that no one! Not even an intern with a cell phone is very usual and a protocol fumble. Leaving security people alone to make the decision is hopefully a lesson this administration only has to learn once.

Just sayin....

[Nelson Jacobsen]

05:05 PM on 12/04/2009

Look the WH took my advice.

White House has, since the snafu, implemented a new policy that would require that a White House staffer be dispatched to each entrance during such high-profiled affairs.

[bekahlyons]

07:01 PM on 12/03/2009

For the last 6 months , the left pundits, Pelosi stated fear over tea party , and others have hyped and give inaccuarate info about the death trheat levels towards Obama!

Finally, today the Secret Service testified to congres and had to answer the threat level question.
Mark stated under oath" the threat level is on par of Clinton and Bush!'

there ! no more spin left!

[Martha12]

06:11 PM on 12/03/2009

Where is the person from the Pentagon attempting to get them the invitations in the first place??

Why isn't she before congress??

The e-mails are all OVER the internet.

Will congress have to learn about these e-mail from Facebook too?????

[SpankedMeGood]

06:24 PM on 12/03/2009

Since when is it a crime to try (and fail) to get tickets to an event on behalf of someone else?

[Mannamom]

06:51 PM on 12/03/2009

How big an ego do you have to have to try to get yourself invited to the White House????

[RobHunt]

07:56 PM on 12/03/2009

Shouldn't the Pentagon liason officer for the Secretary of Defense have more important things to do? The US is engaged in not one, but two, WARS, involving hundreds of thousands of American troops. If Gates doesn't fire that trivial woman I'll be amazed.

[PlanetSpinz]

05:58 PM on 12/03/2009

here's an idea for a Bravo reality show - the White House party crashers living in balloon dad's garage crawl space taking care of Octobreeder's family with an occasional cameo appearance by Jon ("I love my kids and despise Kate) Gosselin

[delatierra]

10:19 PM on 12/03/2009

Don't forget the Very Special Episode where they get golf lessons from Tiger Woods!

[Imzadi]

07:03 AM on 12/04/2009

Faved - BOTH of you!!!

[hapiday]

05:53 PM on 12/03/2009

How did these people get pictures on their website of themselves before the white house released the pictures. Why would the white house have as many pictures of these people who are virtually nobodies?

[SpankedMeGood]

06:25 PM on 12/03/2009

Because they took pictures with their camera . . . Not everything is big mystery.

[BabaLou7]

05:37 PM on 12/03/2009

Check out her Facebook page (link in article above) -- people are simply trashing her on it. When you're about self aggrandizement, you put yourself squarely in the line of fire.