Former Secret Service Agent Reviews Presidential Films, from 'Air Force One' to 'VEEP' | Vanity Fair

so I think the best way to sum up being a

secret

service

agent

is prolonged periods of boredom only interrupted by moments of pure terror. Hello, my name is Jonathan Wackrow and I am a

former

United States Secret Service

agent

. I spent 14 years. years at the agency and four and a half years assigned to the

presidential

protection division during the obama administration today we will review scenes that present the detail of the president's

secret

service

on television and film this is air

force

one directed by wolfgang pedersen watching the air

force

one in The first person is very majestic, it literally takes your breath away.

All the construction around the plane has a different sense of importance than your normal plane. They actually act it out and capture the moment very well. The reason the plane has such distinctive markings. It is so obvious because of the mission it serves, the Secret Service understands the security concerns that come with it and it is integrated into the overall security plan, gentlemen, welcome to Air Force One, please present your equipment for inspection. We have just been inspected at the gate, sir. This plane carries the president of the United States, although we understand that you put your thumb on the identification panel and observe boarding procedures.

What they did well is the organized structure. There are a lot of moving parts around Air Force One just before departure, but it's not chaotic it's very organized what's wrong with this is actually who does it the secret service doesn't protect the plane itself that's a responsibility that falls About the Air Force the Secret Service is responsible for the overall security of the airport site. As we saw in the clip, one of the passengers put his thumb on an identification panel to gain access. This was actually the latest at the time. Since then, technology has evolved and expanded the level of access control to further protect that aircraft.

Hi, I'm Melanie Mitchell. deputy press secretary i will take you from here miss mitchell it was a pleasure to finally meet you in person the president and i were delighted to be able to accommodate your news team so in my experience i never want to say never but i think it's It is very unlikely that you will see a foreign news team absent from a foreign head of state on the plane at the same time the president is on board, if you wish, I think we have time for a quick tour, the press resides in the back part. of the plane and there is a separate cabin for the secret service and the secret security service right here, they will never try to pass without an escort.

I will be very sorry. Hello, okay, moving on the plane. in the senior staff and then in the president's cabin, we could rule the entire country from here or even a war if we had to. What's a bit anomalous here is the fact that so close to the president's arrival, White House staff would be showing off to the foreign press. around him, the president is arriving, everyone should take their seats immediately, I'll get out of here, let everyone get some sleep, the president will essentially be one of the last people on the plane and when he gets up that door closes and that plane moving Mr.

President welcome aboard sir I was surprised at how fast the plane took off during my first trip I was actually still standing and we were taxiing down the runway you don't want that plane to become a target on the ground so the point is that once the president is on board that plane, he moves immediately, Mr. Brilliant, changing plans, danny, let's go to barbados, whatever you want, you're the president, my first time aboard Air Force One, in The moment I came aboard, you knew. which was a different plane, the flight crew was different, you knew this wasn't just a Delta flight crew, these were trained professionals who were there to serve the president of the United States and the food was fantastic, jumping to the film that sees an agent assigned to the president's detail who is actually revealed to be a rogue agent.

The appearance of the secret service agent portrayed in the film is perfect. You always have your jacket tied up. You never know when you might run afoul of senior staff or the president. Therefore, you want to have a professional appearance at all times, the only change you can have is a change of jacket, although the general rule is that if the president is not wearing a jacket, you will not wear the jacket we want. to integrate into the environment as much as possible so that it is easier to simply imitate what the president is doing at that moment.

We also see the rogue agent accessing a weapons cache behind a security wall. What I can say is that this type of weapons system or weaponry on board the aircraft would be protected by an agent at all times. Beyond that, there's really not much else I'd like to talk about. I will only talk about things that are already in the public domain. This is Dave, directed by Ivan Reichman. In this scene we see Dave, the president's decoy, talking to a member of the president's detail. How long has it been going on? I can't say, you mean you don't know or can't say, I can't say on target. house, uh, the president has access to his own private kitchen within the residence, as we see here, but also the

presidential

food service.

The quick answer is that the president can get whatever he wants at any time. The secret service tends to try to provide as much privacy as possible. possible for the president while he is in the residence, so although we know where he is at all times, it may not be representative like this scene here where an agent is standing next to the president while they prepare his food, so his job is to protect the president. president all the time, that's all his job, right, yes, the president's day is divided into official duties and private time, so while the president may be in a relaxed demeanor, you still have to remain focused and focused in his job at hand and That's why in this scene we see that secret service agent maintaining his decorum throughout the scene, he stays professional and focused on what he needs to do if the president were to ever sit down and offer him food, most agents I know would respectfully turn her down.

I have a gun, yes, I ever used it, not a very common question, I thought the agent's response was a little cute and he said it didn't yet indicate that Dave was, you know, starting to creep into some questions that that agent didn't. wanted to. to answer if this was the president, the real president, I'm asking questions, you have to answer them truthfully, but again, you have to understand what the context of the interrogation is, even though we have top secret clearance, you can't really divulge things even to the president . that's compartmentalized information, you know, I've always wondered about you guys, the way you say you'd take a bullet for the president, what's up with that, is it really true?

I mean, they would let themselves be killed to save their life, no doubt, so that means now they would kill you for me too, they are protecting the office of the presidency, so it's something bigger than the individual and I think that's the point. in which the agent finally realized that it's not about protecting Dave, the decoy. or stop a bullet for dave the decoy this is about the sanctity and protection of the office of the presidency this movie is angel has fallen directed by rick roman wah we see the president being attacked by drones while fishing in a lake so all the Presidents are going to have their own hobbies and each of those hobbies will present a unique challenge for the secret service, no matter what the activity is, that methodology must be developed, we see the president with a secret service agent in a single boat in the middle of the lake, this is something really anomalous, you wouldn't see it, you would have the president with the security team on a boat, but then you would also have a chase boat with additional members on it, uh as well as military and medical personnel again, you're taking that environment that's established around the president and you're just putting it in the water.

I'm going to talk to you about you. One of the reasons I really like this scene is because it actually represents a genuine threat. We've recently seen events overseas in Syria where drones have been used and armed to attack over the horizon, so this scene really represents what could be a potential threat. There are a lot of technologies that are emerging today, besides drones, that really worry not only the secret service but also law enforcement in general, if you think about using machine learning with artificial intelligence, anything with fake videos How is disinformation created? How is communication systems accessed?

In short, what about you? The bad thing is the fact that that type of attack could even occur. The secret service controls the environment in which they operate. What the viewer sees is the president on the lake and the secret service on the shore, which in reality is not. how the shield works is a concentric ring of shield coming out of the shield and the reason why that's important for this scene is that the drones that you know come from a launcher and the launcher was pretty close to the president's site that they've been picked up by the secret service and when you think about a methodology and why it's so successful it's because it's systematically and constantly proven correct over and over again, even with emerging technology like this drone strike, hey hannah, where's Megan? mr song, here came a spider directed by lee tamahori in this scene we see the president's daughter kidnapped while she is on school patrol.

I'm on my way to Sanji's classroom, one of the agents answers to the command post which I think they called control. The microphone is actually connected to the watch, so whenever you see a secret service agent talking into his wrist or his jacket or even sometimes you see him putting his finger to his ear, it's all part of the communication device, so it is where the microphone is most located. comfortable mister sanji secret service open mister sanji do you have a key? There are many things that are wrong, firstly, the fact that a protégé is so far away from the secret service is never going to happen, secondly, the fact that the protégé is behind a closed door to which the secret service you don't have access to a third party and I think the most egregious thing is that you will never have a secret service agent asking someone.

Hey, have you seen where my protégé is? I think that's grounds for dismissal. Almost immediately there is a big difference between a security structure established for the president and one that is established for the president's children, especially younger children who may be in school, but the protection methodology does not change the shutdown control , stops all vehicles, blocks sanji. and increased, so in modern times this is a threat, but the secret service has spent a considerable amount of time planning these scenarios, so whether the bush girls went to college, sasha and malia could go to school in washington dc, you build a structure that blends into the school environment where you are still protecting that individual 360 degrees in all directions at all times here we saw a complete departure from that, how do you control the anxiety of a child of the president so that they are not always afraid that they are going to be kidnapped or hurt and actually what you have to do is tell them about those threats, have a little more transparency with them so that they understand and feel safe that, even though there are these threats, you are there and the security structure is there and the process is there to mitigate that we will have a procession and I will walk to the cathedral with the coffin.

This is Jackie directed by Pablo Lorraine. Even if we could resume arrangements, I'm sure I can understand that the secret service still has its concerns. I'm President John. President Johnson would like nothing more than to grant his wishes, but I have to keep his safety in mind. In this scene we see

former

first lady Jackie Kennedy discussing security details before her funeral. of the then president john f kennedy he would do anything that could bring him comfort and who depends on mr valenti it is often said that the policies of the secret service are born of blood and the tragic loss of john f kennedy is a clear example of that The agents They learn very early in their training about the different failures that occurred that day and for that reason we see the president constantly traveling not only in a closed-roof vehicle, but now that vehicle is fully armored and well, as I'm sure.

I know that tomorrow we expect close to 100 heads of state. 103 Yes, I'm sure that's correct and I suspect that they will make all their own decisions based on what there is a lot of classified intelligence that I simply can't access. I have intercepted a threat against General Negol from our assets in Geneva. I fear that if he refuses to leave, others may follow. The question is what is thebalance between exposure and safety, and there is always a delicate balance between the two. In this case, the first lady. I felt it was necessary to close this traumatic situation so that she could walk with the coffin, obviously that represents a major security challenge, but the secret service does not dictate the behavior of those protected.

We build a security structure around that behavior, so typically there is no final call made by an individual to dictate a security procedure. What is it? Both parties are reaching an agreement. If it were up to the White House staff, they would have the president standing in the middle of a crowd of a hundred thousand people with everyone around him. It was up to the secret service. We would have the president in a big steel box with a small vent for air. a big difference in how we reach an agreement well, that's negotiation Mr. Valenti, would you mind sending a message to all the guests at our funeral when they land?

Of course, inform them that tomorrow I will walk alone with Jack if necessary and tell General de Gaulle that if he wishes to travel in an armored car or a tank during that matter, I will not blame him and I am sure that the tens of millions of people who look they won't either, why are you doing this, Mrs. Kennedy? I'm just doing my job, so as we know historically, the former first lady came in. the funeral procession publicly outside, I think in this case the first lady was smart, she stood firm in her own conviction, she knew what was best not only for her, her children, but also for the nation she was trying to heal.

This is the American president led by Rob Reiner. We see the president of the United States requesting an impromptu stop at a flower shop look look there is Karma's flower house hey coop we have to stop what I have to bring us some flowers here now well that's what men do when they break a date that's not it It's the men, I don't know any man who does that hey coop, I'm going to jump to the flower shop, you will help, sir, no, he's not jumping, no, not jumping, sir, the president often called his agents for his name in this case, uh, colin koop.

It's like a good representation of that relationship, the lead agent is the head of the detail, so the whole structure is built around that individual, the head of the detail would ride directly with the president, stay in the car, I'll get the flowers then it will not be personal there is a very large caravan the question always arises how many vehicles are in that caravan it varies varies depending on the location in fact in washington dc you will probably see one of the smaller caravans where if the president traveling to a campaign location that caravan could be expanded significantly let's make a security suite we don't know who's there you think there's a florist there planning an assassination on the off chance that he stops by here the president might say you know what?

What are the chances that someone here will launch an attack on that flower shop? I give them some credit for that, however, you don't know what's on the other side of that door, so it could be someone who hates the president, has high animosity, and is compromised. In criminal activity you simply don't know, so eliminating the unknown is critical for the secret service. Sorry, no girl in the game, I'm telling you, Kiki wasn't even there. Excuse me, wait, I'll be with you. Hey, I don't know if it was you I spoke to on the phone. Virginia President Dogwood sounds like this, so at the time this movie was made, which was actually before 9/11, there's a chance this could happen. have occurred in the current environment, um, what you see here is what is known as an off-the-record move, these types of things rarely happen, if ever, I have never experienced a true off-the-record move that hasn't been re-choreographed. , the threat environment is such that you cannot take any risks and you have to control every environment the president enters. this is a

veep

episode directed by tristam shapiro just do it i think we should find the wrong ones this is a great scene i love it because it represents the shock that the protégés sometimes have when they realize that the agents of the secret service are actually human.

They have some kind of emotion. I think the vice president's reaction here is a bit exaggerated. I have seen the president. make a joke and the agents laugh. I actually laughed at something the first lady said and then in turn they started making fun of me for something, so as long as it's something measured that doesn't have a material impact on the moment, then I think it's appropriate. that was totally inappropriate and inappropriate that's not the first time that's happened because of the way it's not supposed to register emotions it's supposed to be like a geisha robot I've heard secret service agents be described in many different ways uh never like a geisha robot So this is actually the first time, you might find it surprising, but I actually think Veep really represents organized.

I don't mean chaos, but a structure that is a constantly hurried offensive for any administration, a great representation. Of the security structure that I have discussed today you can actually see during the upcoming inauguration during the inaugural parade, you can actually see many layers of concentric rings of protection, there are many things you will see and there are many more things you will not see, I challenge you to take a look and see how many you can identify.