Secret Service Catch Mexican Official Nabbing White House BlackBerries (electronic devices)

Secret Service Catch Mexican Official Nabbing White House BlackBerries (electronic devices)

www.foxnews.com

Whether he was up to no good or simply desperate to play BrickBreaker, a Mexican press attaché was caught on camera by Secret Service pocketing several White House BlackBerries during a recent meeting in New Orleans, FOX News has learned.

Sources with knowledge of the incident said the official, Rafael Quintero Curiel, served as the lead press advance person for the Mexican Delegation and was responsible for handling logistics and guiding the Mexican media around at the conference. He took six or seven of the handheld devices from a table outside a special room in the hotel where the Mexican delegation was meeting with President Bush earlier this week.

(visit the link for the full news article)

That was pretty brazen of a mexican government official to just decide to pocket several thousand dollars worth of electronic devices belonging to the White House.

So, was he just trying to take them to fence them in mexico, or was there a conspiracy to try and gain confidential information? Either way, a major black eye for the mexican government.

www.foxnews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

He took six or seven of the handheld devices from a table outside a special room

Heh how come I never stumble across "special tables" like that. Why would the devices be left in the open un-secured in the first place? I can understand not taking them into a conferance room or something but I would think with all the personal data that is stored on a Blackberry someone would be watching them or locked up in a secure container. I imagine most likely was a personal gain scenario i.e. phone numbers to be used as contacts that sort of thing. Although the data on them would be probably quite valuable as well as the device itself.


Edit to make sense of myself

[edit on 24-4-2008 by drift393]

Our Trading Partners at their best! I am not at all surprised except that no one may realize this was not about petty theft, this was about stealing the Blackberries of people in the meeting and all the information that was on them; this is "Spying, Espionage”. I used to use a Blackberry and I kept everything on it, phone numbers and addresses, spreadsheets; who knows what was on all of those Blackberries.

The guy claimed Diplomatic Immunity. This stuff is going on all over the world, every day. Funny, it is easy for people to believe it because it is in the news and semi confirmed by our government. Just like what the DPS in Texas and the media told us is the truth.

I will tell you what the truth is: THE WORST IS ALL TRUE!

Our Trading Partners at their best! I am not at all surprised except that no one may realize this was not about petty theft, this was about stealing the Blackberries of people in the meeting and all the information that was on them; this is "Spying, Espionage”. I used to use a Blackberry and I kept everything on it, phone numbers and addresses, spreadsheets; who knows what was on all of those Blackberries.

The guy claimed Diplomatic Immunity. This stuff is going on all over the world, every day. Funny, it is easy for people to believe it because it is in the news and semi confirmed by our government. Just like what the DPS in Texas and the media told us is the truth.

I will tell you what the truth is: THE WORST IS ALL TRUE!

Foreigners have more legal rights than we do. Notice he's home in margarita-ville, any one of us would be well into day two of water-boarding about now.

[edit on 24-4-2008 by Maxmars]

reply to post by Maxmars


isn't that considered a terriost act!!! an unauthorized foreigner gaining confidential white house data!!! o yeah, our big businesses make money in mexico, sorry i forgot. never mind, no harm, no foul.

Yes, and the article said it was unknown if this guy would face any disciplinary action in mexico. Right. I'm sure that if they say anything to him it will be about getting caught.

Big news indeed. I'm curious to see how this develops.. Will Quintero pin the tail on the Mexican Gov't when questioned by American authorities? It definitely isn't "petty theft" but perhaps Quintero acting on his own accord hoping for promotion within the Mexican Intelligence arena?

Considering that they 'let him leave' and only got the devices back at the airport - wouldn't it be a kick if they are all bugged now? Or maybe the emails on them were already downloaded!

Why didn't they just arrest him and let the diplomats battle out the details...? would that have 'soured' some special relationship? Would a 'massive' trade deal have suddenly failed? There is no end to the questions we'll never see answers to.

Our crack team of highly trained security experts knee deep in 'protecting America.' Bless them.