[Military Subplane] Author: Golden Bomber
The United States election is now in a tense moment, but there is still a wave of anger from United States political and civil society that needs to be addressed.
When Trump was assassinated on July 12, the poor performance of the United States Secret Service was obvious to all. In addition to Trump's own ear injury, a fire chief and two ordinary innocent people were killed and injured. Secret Service Chief Kimberly · Chittle was questioned for four hours during a hearing held by the United States Congress on Tuesday, and questions from United States politics nearly drowned her in a torrential river. On July 22, he finally admitted full responsibility for the incident. And she, who was originally going to resist to the end but not resign, suddenly prepared her attitude, saying that she had submitted her resignation. Her change in attitude was obviously due to pressure from the outside world. After Kimberly left, the battle between the two parties in United States around the election campaign may have just begun.
▲ Kimberly · Chitle, image source: Internet
In the course of the hearing, questions were raised as to why the Secret Service personnel did not stop the suspicious person from firing after being warned. Kimberley's answer to this question was vague. First of all, she admitted that it was true, and said that she had received about 2~5 warnings before shooting, but she kept ordering the snipers of the Secret Service not to shoot. She acknowledged that this was the worst case of operational failure the Task Force had faced in decades, and that as Director of the Secret Service, she had full responsibility. But her attitude was still tough, and she just didn't resign at the hearing, and a day later, the internal resignation email was exposed, and the matter was obviously strange.
The most speculation now is that Kimberly is just a "scapegoat". First of all, Biden trusts Kimberly very much. Kimberly worked in the Secret Service for 25 years before leaving the Secret Service in 2021 to work as a security executive at a private company. In 2022, he was called back by Paden to serve as the 27th director. She is also very familiar with Trump, having been in charge of the security of Trump and his wife earlier. Since the security personnel of the Secret Service are "for life", in principle, the security personnel of the Secret Service will not be replaced during the term of office of the President of United States. Kimberly's age is placed here, and she is mainly responsible for management, and the front-line security work of the Trump couple must have been done by young people, but Kimberly has been recognized by Trump and his family during his work.
▲ Kimberly · Chitle, image source: Internet
Why is she a scapegoat? That's another question. Kimberly admits that she is wrong, and this is only on the surface, after all, she is the head of the Secret Service. And her refusal to resign, that is, her refusal to pay for the mistake, proves that she believes that the responsibility for security problems lies not with herself, but with others. Who is this man? Biden, of course.
What exactly does the United States Secret Service do? Here we might as well introduce it. The founding of the United States Secret Service can be traced back to 1858, when United States was still in the Lincoln era. At that time, the Civil War had just ended, and the entire United States society was in a relatively dangerous and turbulent period. United States counterfeit money was rampant, the Secret Service was first established as a subordinate unit of the Treasury Department at the suggestion of Lincoln. Their main job was not to secure dignitaries today, but to investigate economic crimes. At the time, protecting the president and senior political officials was done by local police and private bodyguard companies in the United States. It wasn't until 1901, when the 21st president of the United States was assassinated in public, that Congress announced a law to send a secret service to protect the president.
Under United States federal law, the president, vice president, and their families, as well as other dignitaries who are protected, are not entitled to refuse Secret Service protection. According to publicly available data, the 2022 Secret Service report mentions that 35 people across the United States are under the protection of the Secret Service. And among the nearly 8,000 employees of the entire Secret Service, in addition to security work, many offices are responsible for investigating United States economic criminal cases, which can be said to have not lost the old tradition.
▲ The "man in black" of the United States Secret Service, picture source: Internet
To be able to become an employee of the United States Secret Service, you must have undergone rigorous screening and training. Broadly speaking, the work of the United States Secret Service can be divided into three types:
The first category is the "men in black" who wear black suits, sunglasses and communication headsets. They were clear agents, meant to be shown to potential Assassins. Therefore, they usually look tall, muscular, and very capable of fighting, just to deter potentially dangerous elements, and in the event of danger, they must use their bodies to protect dignitaries and block bullets for others.
The second category is plainclothes agents. These agents are less visible, they usually hide in the crowd, but their jobs are the same as those in black. It's just that their work is more hidden, and they usually stay in the blind spot of the man in black.
The third category is CAT, which is generally armed with heavy firepower (in the United States fully automatic rifles is considered heavy firepower), wears night vision devices, and body armor, and has a special logo on their backs. These people don't need to hide their identities at all, they are completely violent machines. When the other party makes it clear that it is important to pull away and drive to assassinate, these people will go directly into combat and shoot like members of the special forces. Of course, all three types of work are front-line personnel, and there are a large number of people behind the scenes who support their work, providing information and intelligence, etc.
▲ CAT of the United States Secret Service, image source: Internet
To apply for the Secret Service in United States, in addition to meeting the requirements of academic qualifications and physical fitness, you must also go through very rigorous training, and even go through polygraph analysis by professional hospitals, as well as motivation checks and background checks by the police. After these comprehensive screenings, they also have to go through a full range of physical and psychological training, which usually takes about 3~5 years before they may be arranged to engage in front-line protection and important work, that is, they can stand by the side of the president, vice president and other important officials. They would pick up dignitaries in armored versions of Chevrolet or Cadillac seven-seater vans, which were fitted with layers of bulletproof glass and composite materials to cause massive damage even if they were hit by a rocket. There is also a backup of the blood of Chinese medicine in the car just in case, and there must be someone in the entourage who will give first aid. The Secret Service also provides employees with a fairly good welfare package, and many retired soldiers from the United States Special Forces also choose to join the Secret Service.
So overall, it's a pretty professional team. Secret services in history have had merit and demerits, but in general none of them were as bad as they are today.
▲ Reagan's assassination, picture source: Internet
In 1909, shortly after the establishment of the United States Secret Service, the 27th president, William · Taftau, traveled to Mexico to meet with his president. At that time, Mexico's social security was poor, and on the important road between the two countries, a killer was ambushed and ready to wait. Just a few meters from the two presidents' arrival at the assassin's location, they were discovered and arrested in time by agents of the United States Secret Service, and a tragedy was averted.
When United States President Harry S. Truman was living at Blair Palace in 1950, two extremist Puerto Rico activists were ready to assassinate them, only to be discovered by the Secret Service in time. Both of these can be said to be the credit of the United States Secret Service, but in 1963, United States President John · Kennedy was assassinated, and this major mistake at that time can be said to have pushed the Secret Service to the forefront. After all, there were three agents of the United States Secret Service in the car Kennedy was riding in at that time. originally thought that the Secret Service would be ashamed and brave, but Robert Kennedy, who served as Secretary of Justice of United States six years later, was also assassinated, once again making the Secret Service's reputation fall to the bottom. It wasn't until 1981, when President Gen was assassinated, that the Secret Service turned the tide around.
At that time, an assassin bullet hit President Reagan in the armpit, breaking one of his ribs. Fueled by adrenaline, Reagan felt like he was okay and insisted on going back to the White House for treatment. But the Secret Service agent who drove the car, insisted on taking him to a nearby hospital, and in the end it turned out to be the right decision. Because the bullet was only 25 millimeters away from Reagan's heart. And Jerry · Parr, who protected Reagan, was finally awarded the title of "Hero of United States."
▲ The Secret Service CS team (sniper team) that protects Trump, picture source: Internet
The United States Secret Service is the kind of unit that will be fine for decades if it is fine, and once there is something, it will immediately be pushed to the hot search unit. After Kimberly came to power in 2022, he responded to Biden's call for "diversity". Her focus is not on improving the technical and tactical skills of Secret Service agents, but on achieving more than 30% female employees by 2030, gender identity, political correctness, and other miscellaneous matters. If Trump hadn't been assassinated, it wouldn't have had any effect at all, but it's clear that the Secret Service has messed things up, and this nonsense has proven to have greatly diminished the Secret Service's original operational capabilities.
Kimberly, who had been with the Secret Service for 25 years, was unlikely to be unaware of the serious consequences of such an act, but she preferred to take a gamble. After all, this will satisfy Biden, although it is harmful to the Secret Service, but as long as there is no accident, there is no big problem, and it turns out that something really happened. The reason why Kimberly insisted on not resigning was that she did not do it out of her intention, but because of "political pressure". Maybe what she wanted to say was that she knew it wasn't right, but she couldn't help it. However, in the face of surging public opinion and bipartisan joint criticism, Kimberly definitely has a mouth and cannot speak clearly. The extreme confusion of ideas has definitely not affected the Secret Service alone. How many such questions remain, no one can say at this point.
The so-called pluralism, LGBT and other movements are bound to bring disaster to United States in the long run. After Musk learned that his son had undergone sex reassignment surgery, he posted directly on X, saying that his son was "murdered" and vowed to eradicate the thoughts that poisoned his son. It can only be said that ideology harms people, and United States we do not eradicate some ideological tumors, there will be many problems in the future.