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Obama Selects Joseph Clancy To Lead Secret Service, Rejects Calls For Outsider

Obama Selects Joseph Clancy To Lead Secret Service, Rejects Calls For Outsider

By Kurtis Lee and Christi Parsons, Tribune Washington Bureau (TNS)

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Wednesday tapped Joseph Clancy, interim head of the Secret Service, to run the agency full time after controversies spanning several years came to a head last year.

Clancy, a veteran of the Secret Service who has served in Obama’s detail, has been interim director since October when Julia Pierson resigned under pressure.

In January, the agency demoted four senior officials as it continued to deal with fallout from a series of security lapses, including a September incident where a man scaled the White House fence and made his way into the residence.

Obama administration officials have lauded Clancy for helping to implement multiple short-term security enhancements to prevent breaches. Those enhancements included directing all White House ground personnel to undergo practical training and calls for additional funding for that training.

In addition to the September fence incident, there was concern raised after an armed guard who did not have security clearance was able to ride in an elevator with Obama while he was visiting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta last year. The Secret Service had also faced criticism two years earlier when agents were involved in soliciting prostitutes ahead of Obama’s visit to Colombia for a conference.

A panel assembled last month by the Department of Homeland Security has called for a series of improvements, including a redesigned White House fence and additional training for staff.
“Acting Director Clancy is a dedicated public servant who has made important chances since he began the job and has started the process of reforming the Service,” said Tom Perrelli, a former Department of Justice official, who is on the DHS panel. “I look forward to working with him as he continues to implement the panel’s recommendations.”

White House officials have lauded Clancy for acting on recommendations by the panel that include making critical personnel changes. The high-level officials reassigned within the agency came from various departments including protective operations and investigations.

With Obama’s appointment of Clancy on Wednesday, the president rejected calls from some members of Congress and the special panel for the agency to be run by an outsider.

“It is disappointing the president ignored the recommendation from the independent panel,” said Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), chairman of the House Oversight Committee. “The panel made it crystal clear that only a director from outside the agency would meet the needs of the agency today — someone with a fresh perspective, free from allegiances and without ties to what has consistently been described as a ‘good old boys network.’ ”
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(Lee reported from Los Angeles and Parsons from Washington.)

AFP Photo/Paul J. Richards

New Director Seen As Capable Of Restoring Secret Service Prestige

New Director Seen As Capable Of Restoring Secret Service Prestige

By Matt Hansen, Tribune Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — As he took command this week, new Secret Service chief Joseph Clancy was praised by former colleagues who said he would steady the president’s protective service in its moment of turmoil over security lapses that led to the resignation of its previous director.

From his time as a high school football coach to his service on the presidential protection detail, Clancy is described by people who know him well as composed, decisive and intense. Though they acknowledge that the institutional problems at the Secret Service will probably take time to solve, they say he is up to the task.

Clancy, 58, was appointed Wednesday as acting director after the resignation of Julia Pierson, who left the agency after several security lapses came to light, especially embarrassing for an agency long considered elite and mostly above public scrutiny. The cascade of revelations was triggered after a man scaled the fence surrounding the White House last month and ran well into the building, breaching several layers of security before being captured. Now the Secret Service is the subject of an independent investigation.

Clancy retired in 2011 after serving on the protection detail for several presidents, including Barack Obama. He then worked as director of security for Comcast Corp. before being asked this week to return to Washington.

While the White House has given no indications of how long Clancy might serve, lawmakers are calling for major changes that may be more than an interim director could accomplish.

Former colleagues were quick to support Clancy as a strong pick to reform the agency. “He’s an excellent choice,” said Larry Amaker, who protected the vice president while Clancy served on the presidential detail. “I hope that he is able to overcome some of the issues that are there.”

Others praised his unflappability under the stress of the job. “Joe’s calm is a huge attribute of his,” said Danny Spriggs, the former deputy director of the Secret Service. “Some of that comes from his previous life as a high school teacher and a football coach. He has a tendency to assess things very thoroughly before he takes action.”

Clancy grew up outside Philadelphia in a working-class family and graduated from Archbishop John Carroll High School in 1973, according to Francis Fox, the president of the school.

After studying briefly at West Point, Clancy graduated from Villanova University and became a history teacher at Father Judge High School in Philadelphia. There, he was a driven and precise teacher who helped coach the football team with his brother, remembered George Hanlon, who was Clancy’s supervisor.

“When he walked into the room, he was quiet,” Hanlon said. “You knew he had a command of the situation.”

When Clancy told him he was leaving after one year to join the Secret Service, Hanlon was not surprised.

“I knew they were going to take him,” he said.

Fox invited him later to return to his alma mater to address students. Rather than talking about his accomplishments at the Secret Service, Clancy focused instead on how he had struggled academically at West Point but never lost sight of his career goals.

“He said it was his lifelong dream to be in the Secret Service,” Fox said. “He said it took him five tries before being accepted, and that he was passed over many times for promotions. Perseverance was part of his DNA.”

Colleagues from his time as an agent were similarly supportive. Robert Byers, who supervised Clancy on the president’s detail, remembered him as “one of the most competent” agents he worked with in 23 years at the agency.

Yet Clancy’s time on the detail was not without controversies. He oversaw presidential protection when an uninvited couple attended Obama’s 2009 state dinner for the Indian prime minister. Three agents were placed on administrative leave.

There were lighter moments, too, on Clancy’s watch.

Former Secret Service special agent Dan Emmett wrote of Clancy’s “calmer than calm” demeanor in his memoir and said Clancy would often accompany President Bill Clinton on his jogs through Washington, a special logistical challenge.

“We didn’t mind the running,” he wrote. “To run with the president of the United States through downtown D.C. and then have him stop and shake hands with the man on the street was unwise on Clinton’s part — dangerous as hell, in fact — and we loved it.”

But his fellow agency veterans did not minimize the challenges facing Clancy as he assumes his new role. “He’ll steady the ship,” Spriggs said. “But it depends on the issues to see whether his particular attributes are well-suited.”

The need for change would take time to be realized, others predicted. “These issues have been around for a while,” Amaker said. “They won’t be fixed overnight.”

AFP Photo/Peter Dejong