This Article is From Jan 05, 2010

Who was third crasher at Obama-PM dinner?

Who was third crasher at Obama-PM dinner?
Washington: The third gatecrasher, who sneaked into President Barack Obama's first state dinner for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in White House, is just another celebrity hunter like the Salahis, a media report said.

The US Secret Service yesterday said that besides the attention-hungry Virginia couple - Tareq and Michaele Salahi - a third gatecrasher got into White House in November, without an invitation, by boarding the bus of the Indian delegation.

Though the agency has not yet released the name of this "uninvited" member, the 'Washington Post' has identified him as 39-year-old US national Carlos Allen, a party promoter, quoting an unnamed Congressional source as saying.

"On his website, Allen promotes his event space as the 'HushGalleria Mansion'. Like the Salahis, he has a knack for getting himself into photos with famous people: Gen David Petraeus at one black-tie gala last fall, rapper Drake and actor Jeremy Piven at other events featured on Facebook," the leading US newspaper said.

An acquaintance of Allen's told the newspaper that that she spotted his photos, purportedly at the state dinner, on his Facebook page in the hours after the dinner, but that the snaps later disappeared after the Salahi row broke out.

Even the newspaper source saw Allen's name in official e-mails and documents pertaining to the Secret Service probe. However, the Post said Allen didn't respond to its repeated e-mails and phone messages.

But, according to the Congressional source, Allen rode from the Indian embassy to the Willard Hotel, where Singh and his delegation were staying, with the Indian delegation. "He apparently knew someone at the embassy," the report said.

The Indian Embassy in Washington has, however, denied that any such "uninvited individual" was part of the country's delegation. "No such person was a member of Indian delegation. The Embassy did not arrange his access," a Spokesman said.

This incident comes as a fresh embarrassment for the Serest Service which is already redfaced over the Salahis' gatecrashing incident.
       
The Virginia couple had also sneaked into Obama's first State Dinner for Singh on November 24, 2009, and even shook hands and posed for photographs with the President and Vice President Joe Biden. Their security breach came to light only after the couple posted their photographs from the dinner on social networking site Facebook.
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