WASHINGTON (AFP) - – The US Secret Service is investigating how two White House gatecrashers beat several layers of security to attend a state dinner with President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The Secret Service, in charge of White House security, is "conducting a comprehensive review of the incident which occurred at the White House State Dinner" late Tuesday, Special Agent Edwin Donovan told AFP.
The couple, Tareq and Michaele Salahi, boasted of turning up to the event on their joint Facebook page with the message "honored to be at the White House for the state dinner in honor of India with President Obama and our First Lady!"
Sporting a black dinner jacket and a flowing red and gold sari respectively, the couple posted photos posing with Vice President Joe Biden, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and even three uniformed marines.
The breach could not have come during a more embarrassing occasion for the Secret Service than the dinner attended by 300 high-profile guests, a major event in Washington's social calendar.
The White House pulled out all the stops, pitching a large marquee on the south lawn, decking tables with fuchsia and sweet pea arrangements and tall candles and drafting the National Symphony Orchestra to supply music.
An official White House guest list, which did not include the Salahis, read like a who's who of the US security establishment. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were among those invited.
Other notables included film director Steven Spielberg, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, socialite Jhumpa Lahiri and spiritual guru Deepak Chopra.
The Secret Service, in charge of White House security, is "conducting a comprehensive review of the incident which occurred at the White House State Dinner" late Tuesday, Special Agent Edwin Donovan told AFP.
The couple, Tareq and Michaele Salahi, boasted of turning up to the event on their joint Facebook page with the message "honored to be at the White House for the state dinner in honor of India with President Obama and our First Lady!"
Sporting a black dinner jacket and a flowing red and gold sari respectively, the couple posted photos posing with Vice President Joe Biden, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and even three uniformed marines.
The breach could not have come during a more embarrassing occasion for the Secret Service than the dinner attended by 300 high-profile guests, a major event in Washington's social calendar.
The White House pulled out all the stops, pitching a large marquee on the south lawn, decking tables with fuchsia and sweet pea arrangements and tall candles and drafting the National Symphony Orchestra to supply music.
An official White House guest list, which did not include the Salahis, read like a who's who of the US security establishment. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were among those invited.
Other notables included film director Steven Spielberg, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, socialite Jhumpa Lahiri and spiritual guru Deepak Chopra.
