Questions Surround Secret Service After Bush Daughter's Purse Is Stolen

Nov. 22, 2006 — -- President Bush and the first lady are always fiercely protective of their daughters, Jenna and Barbara.

Following the theft of Barbara's cell phone and purse, though, questions are being raised about how well the Secret Service protected the Bush twins during their two-week trip to Argentina.

According to law enforcement reports made available to ABC News, on the first day of their visit, Barbara was eating dinner in the San Telmo neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina's capital.

Despite protection from the Secret Service, her purse and cell phone were stolen -- a theft the agents failed to notice.

"I think it is a big deal, frankly," said former FBI investigator Jack Cloonan. "Anytime the president's daughter has something stolen or somebody gets close to the president's daughter, [it] raises the whole issue of protecting the president and the first family."

Neither the White House nor the Secret Service would comment on the theft.

The police in Buenos Aires have confirmed to ABC News that an incident happened but that no formal complaint was filed.

A local newspaper is reporting that a pair of thieves removed the purse from under a table while Secret Service agents stood guard at a distance.

Another law enforcement source told CNN that Barbara was not in "the immediate proximity" of her bag when it was snatched and that "at no point was there any risk of harm."

That's unlikely to help the Secret Service avoid a black eye for allowing the first daughter to be the victim of a crime.

"I don't think I would want to be the head of the presidential detail having to convey to the president that his daughter's phone was taken or that somebody got close to his daughter and could have hurt her," Cloonan said.

The purse-snatching was not the only mishap during with the twins' visit to Argentina.

According to law enforcement reports, a Secret Service agent who was on the advance detail got into an altercation with someone while on a night-out and was badly beaten.

The Secret Service says that it was an attempted mugging that happened while the agent was on his own time, and that he's doing fine now.