Obama appoints first woman, Julia Pierson, as head of US Secret Service - The Australian

Barack Obama will appoint the veteran Secret Service agent Julia Pierson as the agency's first female director, signalling his desire to change the culture at the male-dominated service, which has been marred by scandal. Source: AP

US Secret Service agents ahead of taking up duties at the Convention Centre in Cartagena, Colombia,for the 6th Summit of the Americas as it was revealed a dozen of their colleagues sent to provide security for President Barack Obama were relieved from duty an incident of alleged misconduct. Source: AP

US President Barack Obama has named the first female director of the Secret Service, signalling his desire to change the agency's male-dominated culture following a recent prostitution scandal.

The Secret Service, charged with protecting the president and his family, has faced intense criticism for the scandal during preparations for Mr Obama's trip to Cartagena, Colombia, last year.

Veteran Secret Service agent Julia Pierson, who most recently served as the agency's chief of staff, will take over from Mark Sullivan, who announced his retirement last month.

She joins a notably male team around Mr Obama, who had been criticised for bringing in several men advisers for his second term, which started in January.

"Over her 30 years of experience with the Secret Service, Julia has consistently exemplified the spirit and dedication the men and women of the service demonstrate every day," Mr Obama said in a statement announcing Ms Pierson's appointment, which does not require Senate confirmation.

The Colombia incident raised questions about the agency's culture, particularly during foreign travel. In addition to protecting the president, the Secret Service also investigates financial crimes.

Thirteen Secret Service employees were caught up in the prostitution scandal. After a night of partying in the resort city of Cartagena, the employees brought women, including prostitutes, to the hotel where they were staying. The incident became public after one agent refused to pay a prostitute and the pair argued about payment in a hotel hallway. Eight employees were forced out of the agency, and three were cleared of serious misconduct.

The incident took place before Mr Obama arrived in Colombia, and the service said the president's safety was never compromised. But news of the scandal broke during his trip, overshadowing the summit and embarrassing the US delegation.

Mr Sullivan issued a new code of conduct that bans employees from drinking within 10 hours of starting a shift or bringing foreign nationals back to their hotel rooms. Sullivan also apologised for the incident.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano also praised Mr Obama's "historic decision" to name Ms Pierson as the service's first female director.

At the Secret Service, Ms Pierson has served as deputy assistant director of the office of protective operations, assistant director of human resources and training and chief of staff. She started in 1983 as a special agent in Miami and previously worked as a police officer in Orlando, Florida.

Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa said the Secret Service has "lost the trust of many Americans" following the Colombia scandal. Pierson, he said Tuesday, "has a lot of work ahead of her to create a culture that respects the important job the agency is tasked with."

AP

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First Woman Is Chosen to Lead Secret Service - New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Tuesday appointed Julia Pierson, a longtime Secret Service agent, as the first woman to head the agency best known for protecting presidents, vice presidents and their families.

Ms. Pierson, the chief of staff to the departing director, Mark J. Sullivan, will take over at a time when the Secret Service is still recovering from a prostitution scandal that held it up to public ridicule, generated Congressional hearings and cost a number of agents their jobs last year.

In a statement, Mr. Obama said Ms. Pierson “exemplified the spirit and dedication” of the agency but made no mention of the scandal.

“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,” Mr. Obama said. “Julia has had an exemplary career, and I know these experiences will guide her as she takes on this new challenge to lead the impressive men and women of this important agency.”

As the chief of staff, Ms. Pierson is the agency’s highest-ranking female special agent and has worked for the agency for three decades. She has worked as a field agent and in a variety of management positions involving human resources, cybercrime and antidrug operations, and she has overseen the presidential and vice-presidential protective divisions.

Mr. Sullivan retired last month after almost three decades with the agency. He was tasked with shaking up operations after Secret Service agents were caught employing prostitutes while in Colombia to prepare for a presidential trip. He testified that those agents “did some really dumb things,” but said that assuming such conduct “is condoned or authorized is just absurd.”

A native of Orlando, Fla., Ms. Pierson joined the Secret Service in 1983 after three years as a police officer. She moved to the presidential protective division in 1988, became the agency’s drug program coordinator in 1992 and was promoted to assistant special agent in charge of the Office of Protective Operations in 1996. After a stint in the Tampa area, where she established a task force to investigate cybercrimes, Ms. Pierson became special agent in charge in the Office of Protective Operations in 2000 and later deputy assistant director.

In a short biography prepared by the Partnership for Public Service, she was quoted talking about the agency’s challenges. “I don’t think people realize the amount of preparation work that goes into a presidential visit, everything from where the president is going to physically arrive, whether by airplane or limousine, to the actual event site.”

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WWII secret agent's ashes scattered

10 March 2013 Last updated at 14:42 ET

At one point, Nancy Wake was top of the Gestapo's most wanted list

The ashes of Australia's most decorated World War II servicewoman, former saboteur and spy Nancy Wake, have been scattered at a ceremony in France.

The service took place in a forest near the village of Verneix, whose mayor attended the ceremony, as did an Australian military representative.

Mrs Wake died in 2011 at the age of 98.

It had been her wish that her ashes be scattered in the area, where she played a key role in the resistance movement against German occupation.

Australia was represented at the ceremony by military attache Brig Bill Sowry.

"We are here today to pass on our respects, to give her the respect she deserves," Brig Sowry said.

"It's great the people of Verneix have done so much to recognise her and make this little part of France part of Australia as well."

The service was far from sombre, the BBC's Chris Bockman reports.

Mrs Wake was partial to an early morning gin-and-tonic and after her ashes were scattered, there was - as she had apparently asked for - a drinks reception at the local mayor's office, he says.

'White Mouse'

Mrs Wake was one of the most highly decorated Allied secret agents of World War II.

Born in New Zealand but raised in Australia, she is credited with helping hundreds of Allied personnel escape from occupied France.

The German Gestapo named her the "White Mouse" because she was so elusive.

The ceremony took place in the grounds of a chateau in central France

After studying journalism in London, Mrs Wake became a correspondent for the Chicago Tribune in Paris and reported on the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany.

After visiting Vienna in 1933, she vowed to fight against the persecution of Jews.

After the fall of France in 1940, Mrs Wake became a French Resistance courier and later a saboteur and spy - setting up escape routes and sabotaging German installations, saving hundreds of Allied lives.

She worked for British Special Operations and was parachuted into France in April 1944 before D-Day to deliver weapons to French Resistance fighters.

At one point, she was top of the Gestapo's most wanted list.

"Freedom is the only thing worth living for. While I was doing that work, I used to think it didn't matter if I died, because without freedom there was no point in living," she once said of her wartime exploits.

It was only after the liberation of France that she learned her husband, French businessman Henri Fiocca, had been tortured and killed by the Gestapo for refusing to give her up.

She returned to Australia in 1949, where she failed several times to win a seat in parliament.

In 1957 she went back to England, where she married RAF fighter pilot John Forward.

Her story inspired Sebastian Faulks' 1999 novel Charlotte Gray. A film based on the book, with the lead role played by Australian actress Cate Blanchett, was released in 2001.

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MPs back plans for secret courts

4 March 2013 Last updated at 03:56 ET

Critics say it should be judges not ministers who have the final say on what can be heard in public

The former head of the judiciary, Lord Woolf, has thrown his support behind plans to allow more civil courts to examine secret intelligence in private.

Later on Monday, MPs from all sides will try to force the government to introduce more safeguards before these so-called secret courts can be used.

Ministers want sensitive evidence to be used in trials without UK or foreign intelligence sources being exposed.

Critics say this would threaten open justice.

Those opposed to the proposals also believe they could enable allegations about the mistreatment of terror suspects to be covered up.

'Standards of justice'

The government has introduced more safeguards to legislation currently being scrutinised by Parliament, ensuring that judges and not ministers decide when these so called secret courts are used.

And the concessions have been welcomed by the former Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, who sits as a crossbencher in the House of Lords.

In a letter to The Times he says the government's plans will retain "the standards of general justice" while ensuring that all sides can put their case.

But, the BBC's deputy political editor James Landale said, Labour and other MPs want further changes.

In a series of votes in the House of Commons later, they will push for secret courts to be used only as a last resort when national security outweighs the need for open justice. Ministers say this would mean no trial would ever be held in closed session.

Defending the plans in December, Prime Minister David Cameron said they would apply in a small number of terrorism-related cases which would "simply not be heard" in court otherwise. "We're not talking about closing a bit of justice that previously was open," he said.

The government is concerned that millions of pounds have had to be be spent settling claims which it was prevented from challenging successfully, because that would have involved revealing secret intelligence in open court.

But the cross-party Joint Committee on Human Rights has said the proposals - which would mean some defendants would not hear all the evidence against them - mark a radical departure from the British tradition of fair and open justice and the case for change has not been made persuasively.

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