Colombia, Scandal | featured news

Senators investigating the Secret Service prostitution scandal said Wednesday that dozens of reported episodes of misconduct by agents point to a culture of carousing in the agency and urged Director Mark Sullivan to get past his insistence that the romp in Cartagena was a one-time mistake....

Testimony Wednesday for a Senate committee in Washington will be the director’s first public comments on the prostitution scandal in Colombia last month.

The Senate Homeland Security Committee has scheduled a public hearing on the prostitution scandal involving US military and Secret Service agents in Colombia.

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.

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

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.

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.