E-Mails Show Salahis Never Got White House State Dinner Invite From Pentagon

[sabra]

Source: ABC News

Couple Had Claimed After E-Mails Came Out, They Would Be 'Completely Exonerated'

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2, 2009—

E-mails between the so-called state dinner crashers and a Pentagon official indicate the official was trying to get them in to the White House event, but did not succeed, according to the email chain obtained by ABC News.

In the emails, Pentagon official Michele S. Jones told Tareq and Michaele Salahi that she was trying to get them access to the White House grounds, but never said she had received approval, contradicting the couple's claim today that they had emails proving they had been invited to the Nov. 24 gala.

In the last email from Jones, sent at 8:46 a.m., Nov. 24, she said she still had not gotten them tickets.

"The arrival ceremony (was scheduled to be outdoors) was canceled due to inclement weather," Jones' email said. "They are having a very small one inside the WH, very limited space. I am still working on tickets for tonight's dinner. I will call or e-mail as soon as I get word one way or another."

In an email sent at 1:03 a.m., Nov. 25, the Salahis wrote that they did not get a cell phone message from Jones because "my cell phone battery died early this evening while we were in D.C. from our country home."

"We ended up going to the gate to check in at 6:30 p.m. to just check, in case it got approved, since we didn't know, and our name was indeed on the list!" they wrote. "We are very grateful, and God bless you. We just got home, and we had a very wonderful evening as you can imagine!"

...

ABC News has learned that the couple also apparently crashed a Sept. 26 dinner for the Congressional Black Caucus and were asked to leave.

Pictures from the dinner show Tareq and Michaele Salahi socializing with prominent figures, including Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., and television personality Starr Jones.



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/emails-show-salahis-white-house-state-dinner-invite/story?id=9215516

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email transcripts here: http://abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/Salahi%20Emails_1.pdf

[onehandle]

1. Prison. Nothing less. nt

[Gore1FL]

4. In some ways they did everyone a favor

I am not saying they shouldn't be punished--don;t get me wrong. I'd much rather have high ego people with an agenda of getting on TV pull something like this and identify the security holes than someone with a more violent agenda do the same.

[naaman fletcher]

8. Prison for crashing a party?

Who the hell cares? Obama should laugh it off. Why the hell is everyone so uptight about this?

[aquart]

9. Dear me. Perhaps some very patient person will explain it to you.

That would not be me.

[naaman fletcher]

11. I'll bet if shrub was still president you wouldn't care.

[mamaleah]

14. It is a big deal.

It was not a frat party, your bbq, or my kid's bar mitzvah. It was a WH dinner. We have quite possibly the most threatened President ever, and you want to say it's not a big deal that someone decided to crash it?

I know nowadays it is difficult for anyone under the age of 40 to accept they are not welcome to go and do whatever they please, but sorry, childish anarchy is not how it goes. No invite, stay home. Crash the party by lying to federal officials? Get ready to get your ass hauled in for that.

[peaches2003]

2. Sit down dinner

Since this was a sit down dinner each guest would be given a seating card. I saw this verified. Well, was there 2 cards for them or not? If not, they weren't on the list. I've never seen this question answered. Did they stay throughout the dinner and eat or were they escorted out or left on their own before eating?

[Plucketeer]

6. I think I read.......

.....that they didn't try to sit at the dinner table, but made a hasty exit once they'd had their foto-ops and such.

They need some time behind bars. A coupla years would make other such twinkies think twice.

[marshall]

3. It should be easy enough to check if they were on that first list

It sounds like there were several offices coordinating this thing, with lists (perhaps produced by different sources) as well as invitations. The White House has said they didn't have an invitation, but I haven't heard that they weren't on any of the lists.

[LuckyLib]

5. This is a pair of grifters, plain and simple. Upscale, occasionally

monied grifters with a trail of lawsuits and fraud behind them. Let them eat prison cake.

[24601]

7. I guess it was harder to pretend to be black. n/t

[aquart]

10. You really need to explain that statement.

[24601]

13. Now it could be the pictures, but they look country-club white to me.

Even if she spent six hours getting dressed to attempt crashing a Congressional Black Caucus event, her bleach-blond hair will still give her away as not a member of the CBC. And I'm betting that the CBC members pretty much know each other.

At a State Dinner by contrast, most of the attendees are not members of the White House Staff and the place is full of "strangers".

[John N Morgan]

12. Interesting conversation with a 60's (cold war) intel vet ... it was a message.

There are many people that I would blow this off and offer up the tin foil; in fact, I told him it was tin-foil material. But he basically left it as, "what if it was a message?"

Ruined my whole night. And now this. How did they get in. I mean you got to have somebody on the inside to tell you where and when to show up and what to expect. You can't just walk up to the door and say I'm with Billy Bob.

And if it was a message, Obama is a bigger hero than you can ever think, 'cause unlike Johnson, he demanded a and got a shutdown date.

Charge them, and jail them for a 100 years.

And every person in the security chain that had contact with them must be fired and have their security clearances pulled.

[notadmblnd]

15. it would explain the pentagon involvement, no?

Pentagon official Michele S. Jones told Tareq and Michaele Salahi that she was trying to get them access to the White House grounds, but never said she had received approval

[24601]

16. You do realize that President Obama is at the top of every

Executive Branch Chain. Budget, Defense, Diplomacy, Commerce, Transportation, Security - each chain ends with the President. That's the tough reality about being in command - you're responsible for everything the organization does or fails to do.So by your standard, he gets fired and has his clearance pulled since he's the top of the Security Chain and had contact with them.

Firing seems a bit harsh to me. How about we send him to bed without dinner instead?