Finian Cunningham: The Real Columbia Scandal!

When Bedding Prostitutes is Worse Than Crimes Against Humanity. Get caught with a hooker in your hotel room and it's a firing offense. Get caught desecrating the corpses of dead Afghans and it's nothing. Two scandals emerging this week involving immoral conduct of US Secret Service and military personnel reveal starkly different reactions and priorities among the American ruling elite. Revelations from Columbia that up to 21Secret Service agents and military officers, including five Special Forces, were entertaining prostitutes in their hotel rooms overnight, while supposedly on security duty ahead of US President Obama's arrival for the Americas Summit last week, have resulted in swift retribution from superiors. As news of the "scandal" broke, all 21 American individuals were immediately recalled to US headquarters and had their security clearances cancelled. So far, three secret service agents are out of their jobs. One was fired, the other two are said to have "retired". In this US election year, more sackings or "retirements" can be expected soon as the White House tries to limit the political damage from the president's security detail, known as "jump teams", being seen to be more occupied with jumping on prostitutes than would-be assassins. "We demand that all of our employees adhere to the highest professional and ethical standards and are committed to a full review of this matter," the Secret Service said in a statement. Meanwhile, revelations from Afghanistan this week show yet more depraved behavior by US military in that war-torn country. In the latest scandal, photographs published by the Los Angeles Times depict US paratroopers gloating over dead Afghan militants by holding up limbs of their dismembered corpses.