The History of the Secret Service

1. The Tom 2.0 Live History and Background of the Secret Service<br /> In today’s world of 24 hour coverage of news and Politics, most of us are used to seeing the man and women who serve as the Protection to the President on the news or in Photographs. <br />What many of us here in the United States forget is that these men and women come from an institution that has been around since The Secret Service Division was created on July 5, 1865 in Washington, D.C., to suppress counterfeit currency. Chief William P. Wood was sworn in by Secretary of the Treasury Hugh McCulloch.<br />Yes that’s right it was all about the money, no one cared what the President was doing, there just needed to be a Detail of People working on making sure the Money System of America was working correctly. And people were not perpetuating a fraud to the government.<br />At first things were rocky as it was a new Division within the Government and mistakes were made until came the first commission book and a new badge were issued to operatives in 1875.<br />Hence this is where the phrase, “by the book” originated. Secret Service Agents had to many times during Crime Prevention Investigations needed to consult with the commission book, to see how they should Act, but at least they had shiny new badges to show to the world they belonged to the Secret Service.<br />8 years later in 1883 the Secret Service was officially acknowledged as a distinct organization within the Treasury Department. For 28 years the Division had been kept a Secret from the American Public. And even today their ability to keep Secret Details of the working and running of the White House is what is envied the world over. And emulated from other agencies within the government.<br />At the turn of the centaury Congress informally requested Secret Service Presidential protection following the assassination of President William McKinley. Starting the trend and the mission that most of Americans associate with the Secret Service, defending the President from Assignation.<br />The Secret Service assumed full-time responsibility for protection of the President 1902 Two operatives were assigned full time to the White House Detail.<br />Special Agent Bob Ronald, and Special Agent John Jackson where the first operatives to protect the President in 1902 There Journals are kept in the Smithsonian, and will soon be posted on the internet for all Americans to be able to read and check the logs.<br />To fund this growing division the Congress passed Sundry Civil Expenses Act for 1907 that provided funds for Presidential protection by the Secret Service. Secret Service operatives began to investigate the western land frauds. The Service's investigations returned millions of acres of land to the government.<br />That’s right this division also needed land to have for National Emergencies and for use of Federal Buildings<br />With a growing sense of worry and the mounting tensions after the Great War or what is now known as World War 1 Congress authorized permanent protection of the president's immediate family and made quot;
threatsquot;
directed toward the president a federal violation in 1917.<br />Secret Service men would rotate around the clock protection of the President and was comprised of the most well trained and talented men of their time, Distinguished by their Secret Service Badge.<br />Over the years other division and law enforcing employees were placed under the supervision of the Secret service. In fact the White House Police Force in 1933 is an example of this.<br />It was in this year that the use of CODENAMES to identify the President was used so the first ever being POTUS or President of the United States, after that one was found out in 10 minutes the Secret Service decided to rotate the use of the Codeword to identify who the President is, so CODENAMES were given to the First Family, and the Chief of Staff and other high ranking officials working in the White House at the time.<br />While many people think it was 1947 when Congress enacted legislation that permanently authorized Secret Service protection of the president, his immediate family, the president-elect, and the vice president, if he wishes. (Public Law - 82-79 due to the World War at the time, they are wrong. It was not until 1951.<br />During the Cold war years with Russia the Secret Service main threat to the President was seen as Assignation from the Russian KGB, this lead to many new recruits having the skill set of translation Russian. Many Service Members at the time underwent extensive lessons on the Russian language and Physical attributes of a Russian to help with the detection of any immediate threat to the President. <br />1970 saw White House Police Force renamed the Executive Protective Service and increased its responsibilities to include the protection of diplomatic missions in the Washington, D.C., area. (Public Law 91-217). <br />This Service was often times declined and at many times resulted in detriment to the diplomatic missions, it was therefore ordered that most of these Details be “Plain Clothed” operatives.<br /> The Executive Protective Service was officially renamed the Secret Service Uniformed Division on November 15, 1977. Once again causing confusion among who these Secret Service agents were in Plain Clothes, lucky they had their Special Agent Badge to show people at the right time they were Secret Service.<br />1994 The passage of the 1994 Crime Bill Public Law 103-322, in part, revised Title 18 USC Section 470, providing that any person manufacturing, trafficking in, or possessing counterfeit U.S. currency abroad may be prosecuted as if the act occurred within the United States.<br />Meaning if you photocopied a One Dollar Note and printed it out in Australia would you be able to be prosecuted for an American Criminal Offence? And can you be extradited from the country to stand trial for the crime?<br />In 2000 The Presidential Threat Protection Act (Public Law 106-544) was passed, which in part, authorized the Secret Service to participate in the planning, coordination, and implementation of security operations at special events of national significance (quot;
National Special Security Eventquot;
), as determined by the President.<br />Most National Special Security Events require at least 3 months prior notice of the date of the actual event, meaning that over the timeline of the President many Events have been cancelled due to circumstances unforseen. This has also led to some of the most heightened security for these events, so safe and secure a reality TV person can crash the party 9 years later.<br />2001. The Patriot Act (Public Law 107-56) increased the Secret Service's role in investigating fraud and related activity in connections with computers. In addition it authorized the Director of the Secret Service to establish nationwide electronic crimes taskforces to assist the law enforcement, private sector and academia in detecting and suppressing computer-based crime; increased the statutory penalties for the manufacturing, possession, dealing and passing of counterfeit U.S. or foreign obligations; and allowed enforcement action to be taken to protect our financial payment systems while combating transnational financial crimes directed by terrorists or other criminals.<br />So troubled by this inability of the Secret Service to find this man the Department of Homeland Security was established with the passage of (Public Law 107-296) which in part, transferred the United States Secret Service from the Department of the Treasury, to the new department effective March 1, 2003. <br />During the years that followed under DHS the Secret Service still preformed its primary duty of Protecting the President. While fitting into a new COMAND structure and flow of informational Obligations by the Secret Service.<br />The Earliest time a Presidential Candidate has been initiated with Secret Service Protection was the Illinois Senator Barack Obama in May 2007. Presidential candidate New York Senator Hillary Clinton already received protection before she entered the race due to her status as former first lady.<br />The Secret Service felt that as the other Democratic Nominee already had Protection they felt there was no difference as to why they should not Protect the other Candidate just in case. Already a Tom 2.0 Live Message had been sent to The Senator at his Senator Homepage.<br />2008 The Secret Service marked five years under the Department of Homeland Security. Since 2003, the Secret Service made nearly 29,000 criminal arrests for counterfeiting, cyber investigations and other financial crimes, 98% of which resulted in convictions, and seized more than $295 million in counterfeit currency. The Secret Service investigated and closed financial crimes cases where actual loss amounted to $3.7 billion and prevented a potential loss of more than $12 billion.<br />And today they still do not have one Agent with a photograph of them standing next to Tom 2.0 Live arresting him for counterfeiting money. <br />Alberto KangSPECIAL AGENT for the Service of SecrecyGOOGLE PROFILETwitter AccountYoutube ChannelWordpress - Alberto Kang GazetteFacebook AccountUSTREAM accountDaily BoothFlickr Account<br />