Washington:
Before they crashed the state dinner President Barack Obama held in honour of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a couple of aspiring reality television celebrities contacted a top Pentagon official in an unsuccessful effort to get a bonafide invitation, the White House said on Monday.
The disclosure, first reported by
The Washington Post, came amid fresh questions about the security breach. On Monday, the White House fended off suggestions that its social office was somehow to blame, while the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee said he would hold a hearing on Thursday.
The chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said he had invited the couple - Michaele and Tareq Salahi, Virginia socialites who are candidates to appear on "The Real Housewives of D.C." - to testify, along with Mark Sullivan, the director of the Secret Service.
The Salahis apparently went to great lengths to try to get into the dinner. They communicated by e-mail with Michele S. Jones, a special assistant to Defence Secretary Robert M. Gates who serves as a liaison to the White House, according to people familiar with a Secret Service inquiry into the matter. The White House did not release the e-mail messages, but it did release a statement from Jones.
"I did not state at any time, or imply that I had tickets for ANY portion of the evening's events," the statement said. "I specifically stated that they did not have tickets and in fact that I did not have the authority to authorize attendance, admittance or access to any part of the evening's activities. Even though I informed them of this, they still decided to come."
It is not clear how Jones and the Salahis know one another.
Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, was peppered Monday with questions about the role of the White House social office.
Overseen by Desiree Rogers, the social office, which handles invitations, has sometimes stationed representatives at Secret Service checkpoints in case questions arise as guests arrive for events. That was apparently not the case for last week's dinner, but Gibbs said it had not been necessary because social office employees were available by telephone to field any questions from checkpoint guards.
Gibbs brushed aside questions about whether the Secret Service inquiry should include a look at White House operations.
"My understanding is that the Secret Service will look at what the Secret Service did," he said, adding that the president did not have concerns about his safety.
Meanwhile, the Salahis remained out of sight, except to issue a statement in which they denied that they were demanding money for interviews.
"The Salahis are not 'shopping' any interviews or demanding money from any media networks to tell their story," said the statement, issued by a spokeswoman, Mahogany Jones. "We repute these false allegations."
Later on Monday,
NBC News said the couple would appear Tuesday morning on the "Today" program.