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US PRESIDENT BARACK Obama today named Julia Pierson as the first female chief of the Secret Service, the elite protection branch sullied by a prostitution scandal in Colombia last year.
Pierson, currently Secret Service chief of staff, has worked for the agency, which protects the president and his family and investigates currency counterfeiting and fraud, for 30 years.
“Julia has consistently exemplified the spirit and dedication the men and women of the service demonstrate every day,” Obama said in a statement.
“Julia is eminently qualified to lead the agency that not only safeguards Americans at major events and secures our financial system, but also protects our leaders and our first families, including my own.”
The Secret Service last year scrambled to contain fallout from an affair which involved prostitutes and its agents in the Colombian city of Cartagena, where Obama attended the Summit of the Americas.
More than two dozen Secret Service agents and military personnel, tasked with preparing security for Obama’s high-profile visit, were sent home as a result. Eight Secret Service agents left the agency over the incident.
Secret Service director Mark Sullivan, who is retiring, apologized for the drama, which prompted the agency to change some of its rules.
The goings-on in Cartagena and subsequent public outcry led to broader questions about the behavior of Secret Service agents and the protection branch’s macho culture.
- © AFP 2013.
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So we have lost our fishing grounds to the eu.
Expect more “eu” boats to rape what’s left of our fish supplies even though at the moment its bad its going to get worse as these un licensed boats do no respect exclusion zones
We opened access to our underutilised fishing waters when we joined the EEC in 1973! Catch up :)
Catch up?yet we detained countless illegal dishing boats in Irish waters…?cop on..
It’s not rape, it’s consensual.
I don’t remember agreeing to give our few natural resources away
Ireland gifts 1 billion euro of fish to the EU per annum*. We are allowed catch around 4% of demersal fish. ‘Underutilised fishing waters’ goes back to when absentee landlords allowed the Irish to starve because we were not allowed to fish or gather shellfish on our shores. Think about it a sea full of fish and over a million die of starvation!? We were never given a proper chance to develop our fisheries. For example in the 90s Ireland’s fishing vessel tonnage was 58,000 when Spain’s was 558,000 tonnes (approx 10%). Ireland’s coastline in terms of kilometers is roughly the same as that of Spain. A little unfair don’t you think?
West of our country is a vast Atlantic Ocean and we are closest to the rich continental shelf fishing grounds. Take a look at the real map of Ireland on http://www.Trillions.ie homepage and also have a look at http://www.fishingforjustice.eu to learn more about the plight of our fishermen.
*“Total available catch off Ireland = €1.18 Billion – 994,155 tonnes.
Ireland is only entitled to – €0.19 Billion” Tom Mc Sweeney quoting Marine Institute.
A tad off topic but Norway never joined the EU and have the same trading rights that we do, also guard their interests like fisheries & natural resources, opportunities lost.
Yes, but Norway is abundant in natural resources in a way that we are not and as a result are quite well off on their own. It benefits the EU to extend trade agreements to an independent Norway, whereas it would not benefit them to do the same with us.
Oil is gone and now they are going to destroy our fishing industry, Norway own 25% of our oil already and pay little to no tax have no obligation to sell this oil back to us , what kind of deals are these school teachers getting us into! Just sell off our natural resources like ye sold our sovereignty ! We could be a very independent state if our natural resources weren’t being sold off with no benefit to the people ! Get them out !
The eu is bleading us dry we gave tgem gold oil fish and billions in cash and aid we get little in return..
I’m for building a bigger navy …shoot them thar damn foreign boats out of our waters !! Ship Ahoy !!!!!
A quick question for the author. Can you provide more info on what is meant by ‘Blue Whale total allowable catch’? Is it that Blue Whales are used as a measurement of fish taken? I was under the impression that Blue Whale units only applied to whaling quotas as distinct from fishing quotas. Just interested, thanks.
Load of pollocks
So if Iceland and the Faroes are unapologetically overfishing, shouldn’t the rest of the EU just boycott their mackerel exports? One would assume their surplus is being exported.
have your say