Once more the White House is at the center of mayhem and mishap. Last week, two senior Secret Service agents—one of whom is a top member of President Barack Obama’s protective detail—reportedly crashed a car into White House security barricades after a night of drinking.
Monday, according to a story posted on The Intercept, an envelope received at the White House mail screening facility tested positive for cyanide. The return address on the envelope, an internal law enforcement document stated, was that of a man with a record of sending such dangerous and nasty letters and packages since 1995. One such package was covered with urine and feces.
According to the law enforcement alert, “An envelope containing an unknown milky substance, in a container wrapped in a plastic bag, received at the White House mail screening facility, tested positive for cyanide.”
The envelope arrived at the screening facility, which is not on White House grounds, March 15, but the biological testing the following day was negative. Tuesday, the chemical testing results were positive for cyanide.
Another test is being conducted at another lab.
Seemingly, not a week or two goes by without some incident occurring at the White House—from folks attempting to climb over the fence and sometimes succeeding, making their way into the White House, to drones landing on the lawn, to someone firing shots from a passing car into the side of the building.
The lapses on the part of the agents assigned to protect Obama are becoming more troubling with each new incident. Last September, while the president was visiting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, a man with a gun rode in the elevator with him. The man had not been searched by the agents and was close enough to the president to shoot him.