Mexican official caught stealing White House Blackberries, invokes diplomatic immunity; Update: “Asked to resign”
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You are not going to believe this story. It is really something else. The White House, I predict, will look the other way at the flagrant law-breaking by a Mexican official caught on tape by the Secret Service filching U.S. government property. After all, looking the other way at systemic law-breaking by Mexico is the official Bush policy. Fox News has the scoop:
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.
Everyone entering the room was required to leave his or her cell phone, BlackBerry and other such devices on the table, a common practice when high-level meetings are held. American officials discovered their missing belongings when they were leaving the session.
It didn’t take long before Secret Service officials reviewed videotape taken by a surveillance camera and found footage showing Quintero Curiel absconding with the BlackBerries.
At first, Quintero Curiel denied the criminal acts. But when confronted with the tape, he chalked it up to an “accident”–then promptly invoked diplomatic immunity:
He initially denied taking the devices, but after agents showed him the DVD, Quintero Curiel said it was purely accidental, gave them back, claimed diplomatic immunity and left New Orleans with the Mexican delegation.
It is unclear what disciplinary measures, if any, await him in Mexico. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino refused to discuss the incident, telling FOX News, “We are aware of the situation, but as it’s under investigation by law enforcement officials, we will decline to comment.”
Just looting the White House electronic devices Americans won’t loot…
***
Now, imagine if it were an American government official caught south of the border stealing Mexican government property.
***
Update: USAToday followed up and reports that the official has been “asked to resign”…
The Mexican Embassy says press aide Rafael Quintero was asked to resign upon his arrival in Mexico City.
“Mr. Quintero will be responsible for explaining his actions to the American authorities conducting an investigation,” Ricardo Alday, an embassy spokesman, tells USA TODAY in an e-mail. “The Mexican Government deeply regrets this incident.”
Contrary to the Fox News report, the embassy says Quintero flew home on a commercial flight and didn’t travel with President Felipe Calderon and his delegation after the summit.
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Those Secret Service agents with their video cameras are just racist xenophobes.
sarc/off
Amnesty… Immunity… why should Rafael get treated differently? Time to change lettucehead to blackberryhead.
It shouldn’t have gotten to that point. He shouldhave been arrested for espionage.
I can’t disagree with that.
They shoot spies, don’t they?
Official: Sir, stop. You have stolen items.
Delegate: A damnable lie man!
Official: We have video. See?
Delegate: Take the filthy lucre–I cannot endure it in my pocket a moment longer. When is the next bus to Mexico City?
“Diplomatic immunity!”
*blam*
“It’s just been revoked.”
With apologies to folks behind the movie Lethal Weapon 2.
And lets not forget President Of Mexico Has Family Members In America Illegally
Oh our wonderful friend Mexico
How about this:
Official: Sir, stop. You have stolen items.
Delegate: Lies! I’m a big shot in Mexico and I’ll have your [expletive] jobs. You think you’re a [expletive] tough guy, just you watch and see what the [expletive] happens to you when I get out of here.
Official: We have video. See?
Delegate: You think I’m cute and I think you’re cute, just drive me home.
This was just a dry run to Reconquista.
Does this surprise anybody? After all Mexico seems to think they are entitled to everything we have already – jobs, welfare, education, personal property (that’s yours and mine), etc…etc…etc…
It shows you the teirs of justice in this country and anywhere for that matter. If I purloined those blackberries I wouldn’t see daylight till I was 53.
A Mexican stealing? Wow this must be a really slow news day!
[NOTE FROM SEE-DUBYA: JBH50 won't be joining us anymore. I'm leaving this comment up as a clear example of what will get you banned.]
Anybody else notice the removal of this story from Drudge? It was there for almost half the day…then poof….it’s gone. Hmmmmm. I wonder if Matt got a phone call from someone asking him to pull this story off the site. Seems strange considering he has kept a story about some woman who is fighting to keep her 150 cats….up on the site for 2 days now, but the Mexican fiasco gets pulled in just a few hours? WTF Matt?
He must be a buddy of the Clintons. After all, they stole lots of stuff in 2001 when they left.
One thing is for sure the Republican Party officials are nothing but chumps and wimps…I watched a guy on Hannity and Colmes I used to like-Jack Kemp-the guy who couldn’t form a sentence against Al Gore during the 1996 VP debate-talk about how wonderful McCain was and didn’t even mention “Illegal Immigration”…
and he then went on about how wonderful it was to see the Democrats teariing each other up…
A perfect metaphor for the nation that’s robbing the U.S. blind.
“Here Mr. Press Attache, take a few handfuls of free health care and education while you’re at it!”
Does Mr. Kemp realize just how fragmented his own party is right now?
If a credible third party candidate came in right now, McCain would be toast…just look at overall GOP vs. Democrat donations this year
Clearly, Mexicans are a people with NO morals, ethics, or even basic honor as shown from the top down..and “down” goes a LONG way!
[Note from See-Dub: buh-bye.]
Give the poor guy a break. It could be that he was here as an agricultural guest worker, and he just got confused by the name Blackberry.
Well, we have our Bill Clinton’s and they have their Rafael Quintero Curiel’s sooooo…..
Certainly not all Mexicans are theives but a lot of the illegal ones are. I have personal experience on that.
Wesley Snipes – 3 years in prison for not filing tax returns (1 year for each year not filed)
Illegal aliens – 0 years in prison for not filing tax returns (0 year for each year not filed)
Snipes tried the non-resident alien defense but it didn’t work out too well for him. I certainly don’t condone what he did even though I probably think of our tax system the same way he does.
How can our government do that to him and knowingly let millions get away with the same thing.
Flame away, I have asbestos skin.
Let me put it in context, as someone who deals with these devices everyday, and has many employees in his store, as well as when I go to other stores, meetings, see other managers, etc, and many of us have the same device in the same color: if you pick up the wrong Crackberry, you will know REALLY quick that it is not yours, because you are going to check it about 2 seconds after you get your hands on it.
I’ve been in meetings where we had to put our mobile devices in a box so we are not tempted, and the last one had 6 of us with red Curves. We all picked up the correct ones. You know very quickly. They don’t call them Crackberries for nothing.
Also, if they were like most corporate and governmental crackberries on the BES servers, they would require a password after 30 minutes of inactivity. So, he probably got zip. And those passwords cannot be turned off by anybody once enabled. Have to have the whole thing reflashed by RIM. Wiping the device doesn’t even work.
Do Mexican Diplomats think blackberiies grow on trees???
Hey, that would make a pretty good defense.
If Law Enforcement wants to contact him it might be hard due to the fact that he is “Forced to live in the Shadows”
Heh.
Heh, heh, heh.
Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh…
Bad Geography.
Having just recently been given the privilege of membership on the site, I couldn’t wait to jump in on this unbelievable story. Of course, the good points and good puns have mostly been made. There’s some important concerns and ramifications with this one, for sure. There’s also a lot of comedy here, though it truly starts to lead to some sensitive thresholds.
Ultimately the only point left for me to make is with regard to the blog itself; people are getting banned for their comments. I’m not sure I see, with the clarity I’m supposed to, the distinctions which bring about this fate.
For one thing, speaking with animosity or disrespect about Mexicans is perhaps complicated. Surely it can be interpreted as racism, and is most likely usually the intention; but what if I currently have unfriendly sentiments toward the Mexican NATION? Speaking about Mexicans can be a function of a nationalistic judgment. If I wanted to comment on a nation that I felt was corrupt, disrespectful, culturally undisciplined, or perky-happy; I would use terms like Russians, Syrians, Mexicans, Americans, etc. This is the only terminology available to talk about a generality regarding the national character of the nation in question. It certainly will probably sound like racism. But without a doubt, people all over the world have strong feelings about Americans; “Americans” certainly meant to refer disparagingly about us as members of an uncouth nation and culture, not as a bloodline or racial group. How do I comment on Mexicans as CITIZENS and not an ethnic class?
I think comment 111 reflects a off-color sense of humor, of a tenor that this site probably can’t condone. But comment 117, on the other hand, (while glaringly overstated, inaccurate, unintelligent, unsophisticated, etc), derives from the same sort of frustration with the national character of our neighboring country, which has this article running in the first place. The strong response and prominence of this news story is intrinsically involved with an American frustration with, yes, the Mexican relationship as we experience it. I understand the man’s frustration. I don’t think it’s accurate (as it is an insane generality and extrapolation), but I find his expression of indignation more dismissible than offensive.
In a sense, this entire blog has very fuzzy edges of racism, doesn’t it? I appreciate the challenge you must face in monitoring this.
As far as the event itself; it’s espionage — should have locked the buffoon up. I do think the story would be EVEN better if Mr. Curiel
had said, “Don’t taze me, bro!” along with his other comedic statements.
Lot’s of joking about this one. Bottom line: no greater inslult than to steal from your host.
That’s insult. Still on my first cup of Java.
In the past several months I’ve read about the following.
You have Mexican citizens illegally entering the US.
Stealing SSNs and other documents in order to be able to work.
Committing heinous crimes.
Using services funded with our tax dollars therefore depriving US citizens of lower taxes or more timely access to these services.
Demanding these service providers and businesses speak their language.
Then you have Mexican leaders encouraging and abetting their citizens to enter into and work illegally in the US.
These same officials chastise the US for:
-Attempting to strengthen our border controls.
-Deporting their citizens who are here illegally.
-Convicting and jailing their citizens convicted of crimes.
-Having the audacity to “suggest” how they should use the foreign aid we are providing.
In fact, Mexican law enforcement officials and military members have been reported as coconspirators, protecting drug traffickers and coyotes.
No where have I read of Mexican officials assisting the US with border control or supporting the US enforcement of our laws.
Now we have an incident where a Mexican official is engaging in grand larceny.
When I was in the service, we were told that we were ambassadors when at home and abroad. That our military and country are judged by our conduct.
There is a systemic corruption in Mexico that is affecting their entire country. I can understand the frustration of some posters and the feeling that this relates to all Mexicans.
It’s Michele’s blog but maybe a warning shot across the bow may have been appropriate before an outright ban.
Sorry for the long winded entry.
This was about as much of an accident as the millions of illegal aliens who “accidentally” stumble and fall and oh my lord find themselves across the border and smack dab in the good ol’ USA.
An accident…..Gees….Only in America……
Of course had an American Citizen done this they’d have been hauled off to jail – no if’s and’s or but’s about it!
For anyone who’s interested, here’s the latest excuse from Mr Curiel.
The missing BlackBerrys, Chapt. 2
Don’t forget the towels he might have stolen from his hotel room.
The item is a BlackBerry. The plural is BlackBerrys not Blackberries. Blackberries are a totally different animal.