Two Stories On The Same Day!
Every site I check actually covered these two stories on their front pages. It has been a while since that happened.
The BBC versions are:
China issues warning over Hong Kong ‘illegal’ protests:
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has warned against “illegal” protests in Hong Kong, amid major pro-democracy rallies in the territory.
Mr Wang, in Washington, said the matter was an “internal affair” for China.
US counterpart John Kerry urged Hong Kong to handle the protests – seen as a challenge to Beijing – with restraint.
Analysts are saying that China is hoping to outlast the protestors rather than sending in the PLA like they did in Tiananmen Square. I think that would have been reasonable if the local authorities hadn’t tried to shut the protest down with riot police on the first day, which added another grievance to the protestors list.
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Secret Service director Julia Pierson resigns:
The head of the US Secret Service, tasked with guarding US President Barack Obama, has resigned following several high-profile security lapses.
Julia Pierson offered her resignation to the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday.
…Joseph Clancy, in charge of the presidential protective division of the agency, will take over as acting interim director.
Here’s what I don’t get – the overall head of the Secret Service resigns and is replaced by the guy who was actually responsible for the President’s security? Is it just me, or does this seem rather … STUPID!
4 comments
Joseph Clancy actually retired from the Secret Service in 2011, before the current round of scandals. He has been working in corporate security for Comcast since. Where he did a very good job of professionalizing and improving their corporate security, including significant upgrades in their video camera security systems (something I have some, err, personal knowledge, about). He apparently is on a first-name basis with President Obama, having become friends during his tenure on the Presidential detail, and was a natural choice to bring in to clean things up. I’m sure President Obama wants him to stay on for the rest of the President’s tenure. I’m not so sure he’ll agree, he was being paid *very* well at Comcast and he’s not a young man anymore, he has to think about his retirement.
I was reacting to the fact that he was identified as the head of the presidential protective division, the people who have supposedly ‘failed’. That was all I knew about him.
He’s competent, righteous, and a good cop and a good leader. I can’t think of anybody better suited for the position. Unfortunately it’s unlikely he’ll stay, he needs that Comcast pay for his retirement. Comcast has him on temporary leave of absence right now, but Comcast isn’t going to hold that chair open forever even though they really, really, really, REALLY want him back.
Disclaimer: we have a barely disguised profile of him on one of our bulletin boards here in the office because he’s representative of one of the classes of customers we are aiming at.
Like I said, I was reacting to the job title. I don’t think anyone should have resigned over the issue, but they needed to tighten up their procedures.
Clancy needs to get more video surveillance of the perimeter to provide a quicker, more targeted response.