Norton Says the Salahis Owe Homeland Security & Many Everyday Businesses (11/30/09)

Norton Says the Salahis Owe Homeland Security and Many Everyday Businesses

November 30, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), a member of the Homeland Security Committee, which Thursday, Dec. 3, will hold a hearing on the security breach at the White House last week during the Obama's State Dinner, released the following statement:

"From my seat on the Homeland Security Committee, I sometimes have been exasperated by amateurish, make-work security thrown up since 9/11 -- street closings, checkpoints and the like. The chutzpah that led Michaele and Tareq Salahi to buck security, however, marks the first consequential security breach I can recall. Because I represent this city, the Secret Service knows me, but I am always pleased to give them my ID whenever I go to the White House, as I did Tuesday night at the State Dinner for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Michaele and Tareq, however, are practiced con-artists who bamboozled the Secret Service and perhaps others as they conned their way past all the required gate keepers.

"Beat up on the stretched Secret Services all you want, but the early apology and assumption of complete responsibility by Director Mark Sullivan shows that they have learned their lesson. I have no doubt that appropriate sanctions will occur, apart from the hearings by our committee.

"I wish I could say the same for the headline addicted Salahis. In their search for unearned celebrity, they have pioneered a new technique that could be taken up by terrorists and others intent on doing harm to the president, other officials, or real celebrities. These brazen imposters must be shut down with tough penalties or other wannabes will follow.

"The couple posed no danger to the president, but they have left a hurricane of destructive debt for others. The Salahis are serial scam artists who owe everybody from the IRS to limousine drivers. They are worthless as celebrities; their net worth has qualified them for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filed in February. Clearly, they were outlaws before they crashed the White House. They finally have earned all the exposure they will need for a lifetime and a lot more trouble well beyond crashing the palace gates."