Colombia | featured news

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told a Senate committee Wednesday that she retains full confidence in Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan in the wake of the alleged prostitution scandal in Colombia that has resulted in nine members resigning or being forced out of the agency.

An internal White House review has determined that none of its staff members were involved in the Colombia prostitution scandal that has engulfed 23 members of the U.S. Secret Service and military, a spokesman said Monday.

A total of 23 Secret Service and military personnel have now been implicated in this month's prostitution scandal in Colombia.

Moving swiftly, the Secret Service forced out three agents Wednesday in a prostitution scandal that has embarrassed President Barack Obama. A senior congressman welcomed the move to hold people responsible for the tawdry episode but warned "it's not over."

Twenty or 21 women were brought back to a hotel in Colombia by U.S. Secret Service and military personnel in an incident last week involving alleged misconduct with prostitutes, U.S. Senator Susan Collins said on Tuesday.

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee is defending the head of the Secret Service in the Colombian incident involving agents and prostitutes.

President Barack Obama called Sunday for a "thorough" and "rigorous" investigation into allegations involving prostitutes and Secret Service agents in Colombia.

President Obama has spent part of the Summit of the Americas critiquing media coverage of issues involving the United States and Latin America. "I think that often times in the press the attention in summits like this ends up focusing on where are the controversies," Obama said at one point this weekend. "Sometimes those controversies date back to before I was born."

The Obama administration says a free trade agreement with Colombia can be fully implemented because of steps the Colombian government has taken to prevent violence against labor union members and improve workers' rights.

An embarrassing scandal involving prostitutes and Secret Service agents deepened Saturday as 11 agents were placed on leave, and the agency designed to protect President Barack Obama had to offer regret for the mess overshadowing his diplomatic mission to Latin America.