Marines in Africa? Secret Service interrogation!

Hi, I'm new here, and I didn't really know where to put this, so if it gets moved, then so be it.

I'm living with my girlfriend this summer, and the other day while I was at work something VERY strange happened. A man dressed in black with a badge said he was "Secret Service" and was investigating the former inhabitants of the house we are living in. She didn't know their names, but gave him the owner's phone number to contact. After the fact, she called the owner to find out that he did indeed call the owner, with respect to a "marine in Africa."

I thought it was a thief or private eye with a mock badge until she said he actually called the owner of the house. The owner was not the previous tenet, it was two middle aged men that said they were "not gay". Kinda odd for them to live together, but they sure as heck didn't take care of the house so maybe they weren't gay, anyway...

What did the SECRET SERVICE have to do with any of that? The only thing I could find about the African marine was the incident described here in a local article found here.

Still, what would the SS have to do with this or any other incident of marines across the atlantic? Any ideas would be a great help!

I'm curious as to how you get from "a marine in Africa" to the last men left behind in Vietnam.

Vietnam is in Asia
Africa is, well Africa.

Also, not all men that live together are gay
not all gay men are neat

Dept. of Treasury

U.S. Secret Service The Secret Service was created in 1865 as a federal law enforcement agency within the Treasury Department. It derives its legal authority from Title 18, United States Code, Section 3056. It was established for the express purpose of stopping counterfeiting operations which had sprung up in this country following the introduction of paper currency during the Civil War. The Secret Service maintains its role as guardian of the integrity of our currency, but today also investigates crimes involving United States securities, coinage, other government issues, credit and debit card fraud, and electronic funds transfer fraud. The most obvious of its other activities is executive protection, which began after the assassination of President McKinley in 1901. The Secret Service's functions include:

Protecting the President and Vice President and their families, candidates for those offices, former Presidents and their families, and visiting heads of foreign states and governments;

Enforcing laws against counterfeiting currency, coins, or securities of the United States;

Enforcing laws against fraud or forgery of Government checks or bonds, and other securities and obligations of the United States;

Investigating credit and debit card fraud, computer fraud, and electronic fund transfer fraud;

Furnishing physical security for the White House, the Main Treasury Building, and foreign embassies and missions in Washington, D.C.

The Mayagüez incident with the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

Cambodia is in South East Asia and that happened like 30 years ago.


We have troops all over Africa...althought not in large numbers. US Deployment Map The map isnt all that great but you get the idea.


If the SS are looking for a marine, then he must have been trying to make his own cash or made threat against the president...or maybe he asked to join the SS...



[edit on 12/6/07 by Pfeil]

marines in africa ? one word dijbouti

Wow, dispite it's distance from the topic, that link about the lost Marines in the last fight of the Vietnam War really caught my eye. My former Brother-in-Law was on the USS Coral Sea when this happened. He told my sister many stories about the weird things he saw on Deployment including black planes with no insignia coming up to the flight deck totally loaded up to bear, taking off and then coming back later empty and battle scarred. The planes would go right back down into the under-deck hangers before the pilots even disembarked. He never told her (my sister, who related it to me) what battles in was involved in, but, this one sounds about right.

Now, what's this about Africa...?



Cuhail

Yeah... how embarassing linking those two together. I'm a math-science person not a geography guy.... ha asked three or four other people and they all thought Cambodia was in africa too. Well, my mistake, feel free to

Sorry about that. I guess separate topics. Both can be discussed if you want.

The SS guy at my house was asking about Africa, I just recognized the other article.

If you're interested in the American military presence in Africa, I'll refer you to an article in this month's Esquire by my favorite source on all things Pentagon and Global Security related - Thomas P.M. Barnett.

The article is The Americans Have Landed. It's not short, but it's a complicated topic. Good info.

I love Esquire.

It's likely that the man was actually a representative of the Defense Security Service, not "Secret Service", and that he was conducting routine background investigation of government or military personnel in support of a security clearance. DSS reps are government agents with shields, and do this kind of work for thousands of people all day long.

It would not be unusualy for someone unfamiliar with government processes or personnel to mistake "Defense Security Service" for "Secret Service".

Originally posted by Pyros
It's likely that the man was actually a representative of the Defense Security Service, not "Secret Service", and that he was conducting routine background investigation of government or military personnel in support of a security clearance.

Thats what I'm thinking as well.
I've had them or FBI at my house probably 10 times for background checks on most of my neighbors.

I don't know if the SS does their own background investigations, but maybe the guy was applying for a secret service job.



[edit on 13/6/07 by Skibum]

I'll ask her again what he said, but she said he flashed his badge pretty quickly, and that would've caused some confusion if she thought she read "secret" but read "security"

We'll see, thanks!