Secret Service Slip-Ups: How Safe Are Our Leaders?

Nov. 23, 2006 — -- If they can steal a phone, what's to stop them from placing a bomb, asks one former Secret Service agent?

The recent theft of first daughter Barbara Bush's cell phone and purse in Argentina may seem like fodder for the gossip columns, but it is a deadly serious matter to those whose job it is to provide security to the president and his family.

And it brings up some vital questions: What happens to her father's phone number? How many confidential numbers and e-mail addresses need to be changed? What's going on inside the Secret Service? And how could this have happened?

"It's a 24-hour, seven-day activity," says William B. Hackenson, a retired Secret Service agent currently working as an executive at Fortress Global Investigations Corp. "There's a very high risk of being kidnapped or something worse, especially since 9/11. So you always have to be on your guard."

One thing is for certain: It's not easy to be one of the agents guarding President Bush's twin daughters.

Barbara Bush's adventure in Argentina -- during which several agents guarding her at a Buenos Aires restaurant proved unable to stop a thief from stealing her purse and cell phone and another agent on advance detail was badly beaten in an altercation -- was just the most recent drama in the tangled relationship between the Secret Service and presidential progeny.

It may not seem as dangerous as riding in a motorcade with the president, but protecting the children of a president can be one of the most difficult assignments for Secret Service agents.

And the Bush daughters have proved to be possibly the most stubborn challenge. Since their father's inauguration in 2001, they've graduated from high school, attended college (along with the requisite frat parties) and dated a few different boyfriends -- all while trailed by a few grim-faced agents with earpieces.

Two years ago, agents protecting Jenna Bush had almost the same experience as those protecting her sister had in Argentina, although with better results. In June 2004, one of her agents tackled a thief who was trying to snatch her cell phone off a restaurant table, where Jenna and her four friends were eating, in the resort town of Tarifa in southern Spain.