Sin, Sex and Uncle Sam
Of the delights of this world, man cares most for sexual intercourse, yet he has left it out of his heaven. ~ Mark Twain
Back when I was a young diplomat, I took a flight from Bangkok to Taipei to catch an American freighter to Seattle. A Taiwanese businessman on my flight took a liking to me and we exchanged cards. I toured the sites during my weeklong stay in the Taiwan capital. One night, I received a call from the businessman. "Did you receive a visitor this evening?" he asked. I replied that I hadn't. "Didn't a beautiful young woman come to see you in your room?" he persisted. "No," I replied, wondering where this conversation was going. The businessman expressed disappointment and went on to tell me he had hired a high-class "escort" to show me "a good time." He undertook to follow up to ensure the woman returned. I told him I wasn't interested and to cancel whatever transaction he had made with the escort. I then hung up. Why didn't I accept the businessman's "gift"? Several reasons. Prostitution is not my thing, whatever name one chooses to call it. As an official of the USG, I was prohibited from accepting any gift, material or in kind, above a nominal value. The Taiwanese intelligence service was considered a "hostile service" by us, notorious for seeking to suborn U.S. officials by any host of methods, the "honeypot" included. Finally, I've always felt a responsibility to represent myself honorably as an American diplomat abroad. Call me crazy. But that's how I am.
On the heels of the Secret Service prostitution scandal, comes a report out of Brazil of an altercation between members of the U.S. embassy there and a Brazilian prostitute. Romilda Aparecida Ferreira, the ex-prostitute, states she plans to sue for "medical expenses, lost income, and psychological trauma" after an embassy van ran over her in a parking lot leaving her with a broken collarbone, punctured lung and other injuries on Dec. 29, 2011. The embassy personnel comprised three Marine guards and a civilian who took a chauffeured embassy vehicle to a strip club that evening. Ms. Aparecida was one of several prostitutes brought into the van. The Americans reportedly shoved her out of the van before running her over. Ms. Aprecida states she refused a cash payment offer by embassy reps to settle the case. The U.S. State Department confirms the incident took place, but disputes some of the details. Marine guards at our overseas missions, unfortunately, not infrequently land in trouble for misbehavior. Most of them being post-adolescents, it comes with the territory of male youth. Clayton Lonetree, a USMC guard in Moscow who fell into a classic KGB honeypot trap, is the most egregious example.
Meanwhile, Seattle's KIRO television reports that members of the Secret Service advance team paid for sex with prostitutes in El Salvador while preparing for President Barack Obama's trip to the Central American country in March 2011:
"The eyewitness says he joined about a dozen Secret Service agents and a few U.S. military specialists at a strip club in San Salvador a few days before President Obama and his family arrived in El Salvador to meet with its new president, Mauricio Funes.
This source witnessed the majority of the men drink heavily ('wasted,' 'heavily intoxicated') at the strip club. He says most of the Secret Service 'advance-team' members also paid extra for access to the VIP section of the club where they were provided a number of sexual favors in return for their cash. Although our source says he told the agents it was a 'really bad idea' to take the strippers back to their hotel rooms, several agents bragged that they 'did this all the time' and 'not to worry about it.' Our source says at least two agents had escorts check into their rooms. It is unclear whether the escorts who returned to the hotels were some of the strippers from the same club."
These additional sex scandals involving American officials overseas play right into the hands of anti-U.S. Latin American leaders, particularly in Venezuela and Cuba, who throw out facile assertions that Americans historically have viewed the region as a "vast whorehouse." They also leave the average Joe and Jane back home scratching their heads wondering about the caliber of people their tax money is supporting overseas.
So, what gives?
First, it must be kept in mind that when you take the oath to protect and defend the Constitution, you do not also swear to lead the life of a nun. Government is a human institution made up of real human beings, with all the fallibilities and passions inherent in our species. On the other hand, however, those entrusted with representing their country to the world, be they diplomats, military, or law enforcement agents, are expected to comport themselves with dignity and honor.
Unfortunately, this isn't always the case. Again, as a young diplomat at a posting in a communist country, it fell upon my shoulders to negotiate a monetary settlement with a family whose daughter was seriously injured by a drunken embassy communications specialist who drove his car into a group of kids after a night on the town. This married man had repeated scrapes with bargirls as well as traffic cops. When in charge of a consulate in an Asian city, I demanded that our embassy remove a consulate staffer for repeated rabblerousing in local bars and with prostitutes as well as for several DUI traffic incidents. An employee of "another agency," this Oklahoma ex-cowboy married to a devout Baptist spouse just lost it during his first overseas tour of duty.
These are just two of many examples I can cite of bad behavior overseas by some of our officials. I addressed this in more detail in my three-part series, Love, Romance & Sex in the U.S. Foreign Service. I concluded, "The U.S. Foreign Service consists of America's best in terms of brains, abilities and relevant knowledge. But its members are all too human just like the rest of us. No, Foreign Service personnel are not a bunch of kinky perverts lusting after the people with whom they work and associate. But funny things do happen in life. And the system is pretty good about policing itself. Messy adulterous affairs overseas often end up with the involved parties being sent back home, with a cloud over their careers. Our diplomats are held to high standards which are taken seriously."
Unfortunately, this latest revelation of carousing by Secret Service agents calls into question that agency's culture as well as its leadership. In a rigorous investigative report in 2002, "Secrets of the Secret Service," U.S. News & World Report revealed a litany of criminal as well as malfeasant behavior on the part of USSS agents ranging from embezzlement to assault to statutory rape going back years. The documented cases cannot be chalked up to "boys will be boys." The central question therefore is whether the Service has truly cleaned up its act, or simply swept problems under the rug. Obfuscatory statements by past directors and the current senior management don't provide a lot of confidence. Those in the service of their nation are human beings. But they are human beings held to a higher standard. The Secret Service motto, "Worthy of Trust and Confidence," needs to be taken seriously by all of its employees. And its leadership, heretofore given a pass by Congress, needs to be held more accountable.