United States Secret Service
The United States Secret Service ( or shortly Secret Service; abbreviated USSS ) is an American law enforcement agency at the federal level, which is under the Department of Homeland Security; until March 1, 2003, was the Secret Service to the United States Treasury. The international public's awareness of the authority primarily as a protective organ of the President.
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The Secret Service is primarily responsible for combating financial crime and for the provision of personal security of the President, the Vice President, their families, former presidents and their spouses, certain candidates for the offices of President and Vice - President, and the United States visiting heads of state. He also provides forensic assistance in the investigation of local crimes.
Furthermore, protect uniformed officers of the Secret Service, the Washington-based foreign diplomatic missions and also provide sensitive foreign diplomatic personnel protection.
The field of financial crime mainly includes counterfeiting, financial fraud, check fraud, forgery of currency equivalents to (eg traveler's checks ), certain cases of computer fraud and credit card fraud.
History
The Authority was on July 5, 1865 in Washington, DC launched and was initially responsible for combating counterfeiting, which is why it has also been assigned to the Ministry of Finance. For example, in 1910 succeeded the destruction of the counterfeit money ring around the Sicilians Vito Cascio Ferro and Ignazio Saietta in New York City. The Secret Service was also up to the establishment of the Bureau of Investigation ( BOI) in the Ministry of Justice, which later became the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI ), the only federal authority, who were allowed to perform in the entire United States investigation in criminal cases of all kinds. Therefore, Special Agents of the Secret Service under the leadership of the Attorney General were, for example, 1870/71 used to crush the Ku Klux Klan. 1908 this now well ausgeuferte " borrow " from Special Agents of the Secret Service was banned, and the Secret Service now limited solely to financial offenses and the role of personal protection for the president.
After the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901, Congress formally asked the Secret Service to take over the protection of the President. Secret Service agents also had previously protected the president since Grover Cleveland's term of office, and also on the day of the assassination of McKinley this was accompanied by three Secret Service agents. There had, however, been no explicit legal basis, and the special agents had the task - as many other tasks too - adopted because they were among the few civilian federal agents who were allowed to carry weapons. FBI, CIA, ATF or DEA did not exist at that time. The U.S. Marshals already existed and that contributed in part for a long -term protection of the President, but in the end the choice fell on the Secret Service, especially because even the U.S. Marshals Service has not been established as the central authority. The Secret Service was still the only one standing at the federal level available authority. Such a central location was desired, however, to now to create on the basis of a law a clear responsibility.
Since then, he protected the President of the United States and its closest relatives. The U.S. agents are heavily armed and are working with the local police and the military together to protect the president during his travels.
1994, Congress has passed a law stating that only those presidents who were elected before 1 January 1997 in the Office, a life-long protection by the Secret Service are entitled to. Who has come into office after January 1, is only entitled to ten years of protection from the resignation from office. This amendment, however, was reversed in 2013 by President Barack Obama signed a bill to in January 2013. This means that both Obama and his predecessor George W. Bush are entitled to lifelong personal protection. In 1985, however, refrained from Richard Nixon eleven years after the end of his presidency as the only ex-president voluntarily on personal protection.
The Secret Service has about 6,500 employees: 3,200 Special Agents ( bodyguards and investigators with financial fraud), 1300 employees of the " Uniformed Division " that protect government buildings and some foreign missions, and 2,000 technical and administrative employees.
Normally officials use the Secret Service, the SIG Sauer P229 as a handgun.
Criticism of missions in Germany
In Germany, the Secret Service is thus uncomfortable noticed during the visit of President George W. Bush in February 2005 in Mainz, that due to the massive security at Frankfurt airport failed 150 takeoffs and landings. At the G8 Summit in Cologne in 1999, the Secret Service wanted to first let the Hohenzollern Bridge, Cologne's busiest railway bridge over the Rhine, blocked for several hours. Because of the importance of the Cologne main train station as Western European railway hub this blocking would have large parts of the long-distance transport of high-speed routes between Paris, Brussels, Cologne and Amsterdam ( PBKA ) and adjacent regions in West Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and northern France brought to a standstill. The German Bahn AG was able to prevail with an intervention of politicians and prevent the blocking.
Further criticism was made, as an employee of the Secret Service allegedly without permission German authorities a suspected offenders arrested at Frankfurt Airport in March 2008, for the no arrest warrant existed in Germany. The federal government said, however, that the Secret Service officials in Germany have only advisory powers and may hold no more without recourse to the Federal Police. Also, the government said that contrary to the statements of some witnesses is always present an official of the Federal Police when arrests are arranged. According to one dating from the 2007 agreement, the U.S. agents are used at German airports to counterterrorism encouraged. In the German -American extraditions on the basis of the extradition treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States of America 20 June 1978 as amended by the supplementary agreement dated 21 October 1986 ( U.S. AuslV ) takes on the German side a Tatverdachtsprüfung, according to the case-law are not made available. The Government also notes that the United States are not required of America, in spite of Article 16, paragraph 2, sentence 3 U.S. AuslV mentioned hint to give reasons for the arrest, a shapeless warrant enough. On the basis of the Air Transport Agreement of 30 April 2007 with EU and U.S. CBP are four staff at Frankfurt airport currently active. DSH staff who belong to the TSA, are present in many German airports.
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The first female director of the Secret Service since March 2013, the agent Julia Pierson. Previous managers were: