WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Salahis weren't the only unauthorized guests at President Barack Obama's first White House state dinner.
The Secret Service announced Monday that a third person who wasn't on the official guest list made it into the dinner by entering with the delegation of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
A Secret Service statement said the unidentified person traveled from a local hotel with the Indian delegation, which was under the responsibility of the State Department.
A senior State Department official identified the individual as an American man, but declined to provide further information. The official said the man showed up at the hotel where the State Department was helping transport - at the request of the Indian Embassy - a group of Indian businessmen to the dinner.
"This individual went through all required security measures along with the rest of the official delegation at the hotel, and boarded a bus/van with the delegation guests en route to the White House," the Secret Service statement said.
The State Department official said it is unusual for the department to escort a group of private foreign nationals around Washington, but said the embassy made a special request to facilitate their travel because the group "was very important" to the Indian delegation.
"At present, there is nothing to indicate that this individual went through the receiving line or had contact with the President or first lady," the statement continued.
The identity of the person was not disclosed. The Secret Service statement said the person's name had not been entered into the WAVES computer system for White House visitors, while the rest of the names in the Indian delegation were in the system.
"Procedural changes have already been implemented to address foreign delegations under the responsibility of Department of State who are entering facilities secured by the Secret Service," the statement said.
A northern Virginia couple, Tareq and Michaele Salahi, made internationalheadlines by crashing the Nov. 24 event and having their photo taken with Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and other dignitaries.
– CNN's Elise Labott contributed to this report.
Updated: 10:06 p.m.
From CNN Politics
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Wow. Loosy goosey security there, isn't it?
pretty sad if his (Obama's) team can't even secure the white house; What is the rest of the UNITED STATES in for?
No surprise here when you have an inept administration in The White House.
If one can not guard the WH safety, then how can he/she can protect the USA?
Our secret service is third world.
Completely unacceptable. Not only was this another potential threat to our President, but a potential threat to the Primie Minister. If I were another foreign leader, I'd think twice about coming to this White House. I understand the administration is new at this, but the Secret Service isn't!
Gee, Secret Service, why don't you capitalize on your title and keep this kind of snafu SECRET? To what purpose is this type of information being disseminated to GLOBAL news agencies? None of this puts you in a good light, on the contrary, it makes you look quite inept thereby inviting other "amateurs" to try their luck at entering the White House uninvited. The more I think about it the less enthused I am at having you 'protect' our President. Good gravy!
you know I hate this presidents policies, but he is our president! you know the president of the united states of america! this is unacceptable and even though I think he is making mistakes nothing can happen to our president! I would rather see him ruin us with foolish liberal policies that we can someday fix than something happen to the president! I put this on his staff don't want to hear chatter I just expect this man to be protected, even a foolish act like the one on the italian pm ! if someone even broke his nose it would be disgusting! wow it makes me so mad that this could happen at the whitehouse!
Okay, NOW it's time for heads to roll.
i don't want us all to get along – i want all the gate crashers prosecuted as threats to POTUS.
Wow i am speechless and the U.S says the rest of the world's security is bad. mmmmmmmm
Its no wonder the crotch bomber got aboard a plane to the USA
I am so mad I have to post again because I am thinking about there being exploding underwear in this world, I am sure you could make exploding anything and we have a lapse like this! I don't care how you stand on our current issues this is disgusting!
If Obummie can't protect his house do you think he can protect yours? What a loser. We better hope that we have heroes on our airplanes like the dude in Detroit.
I would be "ashame" to admit to the public that uninvited people where able to pass security measures and enter a high level Presidential function. Don't only fire security, but also fire those who leak this kind of press to the media.
I'm glad the Salahi's brought the lapse to the attention of everyone so this never happens again. Last thing we need is an assassinated President.
He is now signing up for Facebook. Be his friend. No, it's not humorous, it's scary. Not for the president, but for National Security.
Good for them! Talk about playing politics! If you want to chaneg parties you do it when running ofr office or you resign and then do it. I don't care if you are a Dem or Rep.
:ieberman changed while running when he had to become a third party candidate.
I'm sure this has been going on for years but in a 24/7 news cylce world, we hear about it now.
They probably also know how much of each item on his plate was comsumed!
And they want to protect us against terrorism.
If this government can not secure a white house dinner how in the world can we expect them to be able to pretect us from outside the white house?
Complacency kills.
I wonder if it is the same Indian man who helped the nigerian terrorist slip through customs in Amersterdam? Maybe that's why the white house is withholding information from the senate intelligence committee.
The dept of Homeland security is a joke, they can't even properly screen people entering the White House!
Or next time you're at the airport, take a look at the screeners: The laziest looking, under-educated amateurs.
One could easily smuggle an atom-bomb past them, completely unnoticed. The DHS needs dramatic changes.
Oh, no worries, it was Bo, the Presidents pooch.
Unbelievable. How humiliating, embarrassing and inept. Security – yet one more thing this administration has bungled. Wait until they start running our health care.......I'd even vote for W. Bush at this point.
This is not Obama's or his Administrations' fault. Secret Service and the Protocol Officers at the State Department are responsible for handling the visits of foreign delegations and someone there obviously dropped the ball. Again, not Obama or his Administrations' fault.
This is getting scary, what has happened to the Secret Service?
With the redneck cons burning President Obama in effigy in Georgia, his security and safety should be priority one!
Gee CNN this is all great News (sic), where is an article about surrendering our sovereign rights to INTERPOL?
I'm sure Obama will find a way to apologize to the world for this too.
OK! S ,we know the party was very crashable and that is what was done. Enough of the mistake reiterances.
Let's get on to things that are important to life and safety, not WH protocol mess-ups!
So much for security at the White House and homeland security. Obama is making it easy for the terrorists while he is 'playing' president. He needs to start taking his election seriously and do his job. This isn't a popularity contest for him to be nice to our enemies.
I'm guessing that the third uninvited guest was either the Octomom or Balloon Boy. If 2009 proved anything, it's that we are a nation of fame-seeking douchebags. Have a nice day!
And you wonder why people dont wont the government running health care. They cant even read a list to see if peoples names are on it.
It's starting to look like Obama may want
to consider some of the mob bodyguards
from Chicago or New York.
Lately it seems harder to get to a mob boss
than the President of The United States.
These little leaguers can't even watch the WH and we expect them to keep our airports safe?
That is what happens when you select (not elect) someone who has NEVER had a real job, NEVER ran a business, NEVER ran a city and NEVER ran a state.
All the fraud can do is RUN his mouth and only with a binkyprompter, congrats progressives, losing seats in Congress and Governorships all across the country, how's that HOPEMNCHANGE feeling now?
2010, we take the country back from Obama and his "smart people"...............................
Great news and another way to keep the Republicans more distracted than they already are with anything and everything to complain about.
My question is: Why THAT party? I mean, it looked like one of the most boring parties ever. Why would anyone want to crash it?
Who is in charge here? The President is being protected by clowns. Why not invite the T-bag party members. Oh that's right, they don't need to be invited.
Any updates on where we are on the "investigation" of the Salahi's??
Also, what are the Vegas odds that they will escape prosecution, so Desiree Rogers doesn't have to testify?
I'd put the odds of Salahi's being left alone at about 100-1.
Everything i screw up since prince Obama took over. he can't even keep his guest list straight. so how can he possible keep our health issues straight. any chnance we can get a redo.
frank la may
What's going to happen to these people, if that were me I would surely be charged with something by now. Oh that's right they have $$ so they can do as they please
Well this is certainly the 'in the news' update I need today....when I like what is on the WH menu..guess I just need a bus load of 'friends' and I'm in......
It is ironical that secret services reveal a mishap regarding their responsibilities. If I were them, I will rectify the mistake, prevent future occurrences and keep quiet. Letting people know about your weaknesses is like inviting more problems!
What's up with secrect service security?
So if the Obama Amateur Hour can't even keep unauthorized people from entering the White House, he's going to protect our air travel how?
"The buck stops here."
President Obama may want to have a more relaxed attitide of openness surrounding his presidency–after all, it fits his egalitarian image–but his office and therefore his person are important to us, too.
As he has a responsibility to hire AND FIRE idividuals who will keep us safe during airline travel, he has a responsibility to see that he is as protected as possible by serious, professional, and patriotic workers.
Mighty tight ship they're running.
I can understand the white house being cordial, however,,,,,,,with this kind of security, especially in the white house,,,,,,,i have my doubts that Obama will be in the white house for very long. More than likely, one of the uninvited guests will make Obama the first black president to be assinated. My wife and myself, we had more security than what has been made light of in the white house. Our security let no-one in our house anytime,,,,,they were named Samson & Delilah,,,,,,,,brother and sister Doberman's Perhaps Dick Cheney could provide security, he has been know to shoot people, people he even knows.
The so-called Leader of the Free World can't even keep track of who gets into his own (borrowed) house. What a collection of clowns...
How do you swing an invitation to one of these functions without being a head of state?
Obviously they didn't go through all the "required security checks" or they would have been prevented from entering the white house in the first place. Very frightening that in the current climate of hate and racism that it is so easy to gain such anonymous access to the president.
OK... let's see if I have this straight.
The White House and the SS can't keep uninvited guests out, they knew about a potential radical who attempted to bomb a US bound airliner... but somehow *I* can't fly from point A to point B without a pat down, body scan, wand scan, shoes off, no carry-on, profiled because I might file the arms of my reading glasses into leathal weapons, keep my mouth shut for the last hour of the flight, etc., etc.???
Utterly ridiculous... and I'm a democrat.
It's just a matter of time with this adminisration.
They run a tight ship over there...don't they?
This is Bull! how is it that the Obama White House has had soo many breaches within a very short time? maybe it's time to slow down on the parties the President attends or organizes. I think the Secret Service is stretched too thin!
Stop telling people that "uninvited guests" are entering the white house.
Are you guys trying to provoke someone to think they can get in, and G-d forbid do some harm? Just becuase this biased news channel doesnt like Obama, doesn't give you a right to give security flaws you arseholes
It's a shame that something like the WH breach had to happen before new and expanded security measures were put in place. Every contingency must be planned for. Every staff member must be carefully selected and trained thoroughly.
What If:
1. The Sahalis were suicidal terriorists bent on killing the President? And were successful at least in their attempt.
2. Mrs. Obama was standing next to the President and was injured or killed too?
3. Vice President Biden and/or Mrs. Biden were killed also.
Who would answer for the lapse in security, and what difference would it make? It would have been too late.
Something must be done immediately to guarantee that another critical breach in security doesn't happen.
What exactly is the job of the Secret Service? Oh yeh, protect the President.
there must be conspirators within the Obama admin
At this point party crashers are much less interesting than potential plane crashers, and this administration should pay attention to possible terrorists and should intensify the "war on terror" efforts. I am not interested what G.W. Bush did that was wrong, he is not the president anymore, I am more interested in the current president doing the right things for our safety! So far I am pretty scared given the record to date.
Does anyone else see a problem here? I mean this is the 4th person who has been within close proximity of the President of the United States, who has his own detailed security that is supposed to be ready to take a bullet for him. I have never in my 27 years of life heard of anything like this until now. WHY NOW!!! Why with this President is it so easy for people to slip past security and yet and still, no one has been punished or at least fired for these crimes. We have been so excited about having the 1st Afican-American President, yet they can't even protect him at his home. What"s next, if he calls the police, will they even come? People want to believe that this world has changed, but keep reading the news and you can see just how much it hasn't...and that is really sad!!!
Where's the transparency Obama spoke of?
This is so silly. There have probably been uninvited guests at every White House function over the last two hundred years. It is the height of paranoia to think that every guest must be vetted prior to entering the mere presence of the President. Are they running background checks on all the school kids, veterans, and other citizens the President talks to every year?
We can't protect our own WH, why do we think our country can be protected? What a joke!
I know the Secret Servuce does a great job, but three people in one night. It only takes one person with some sort of explosive device similar to the one used to attempt to blow up the NW flight on Christmas before people start taking things seriously, but I guess that's what we get when we have a president that does not really care about security himself
How do we expect to keep the US secure if we cannot maintain security of a White House Dinner Party??
Chilling news indeed! Both the President AND the Vice President! I shutter to think what could have happened if a Right Wing Christian (Westboro Baptist etc.),had gained entrance. There seems to be so much hatred from these groups of extremists these days. It is a fortunate thing that these breaches were discovered before something terrible happened.
That is crazy!!!
Someone is putting the life of the President at risk!
They need to be fired!!!!
Just goes to show that with this administration, "security" is just another word...
Well he did campaign for an open door administration.
It seems like a systemic problem. If it happens once, I can understand, it happens twice we need to re-evaluate and understand the root cause to prevent it from happening again, but a third time....?
Applying some basic problem solving techniques like asking the 5 why's, might get you to the root cause.
Thanks for reading my comment.