As previously reported, the Virginia couple literally talked their way in to Obama's first state dinner, which was thrown for Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh and his wife, Gursharan Kaur, on Nov. 24.
Many within media and political circles have expressed outrage at the lapse in security exposed by the Salahis' stunt. The notion that anyone who has not been cleared by the Secret Service could get close enough to touch President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden at the same event is frightening.
The House Homeland Security Committee has asked the couple, Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan and White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers to testify at a hearing on Dec. 3 about the incident. Some lawmakers have even called for criminal charges against the Salahis.
The Tale of The E-mails
A senior Pentagon official said she corresponded by e-mail with the Salahis about attending the state dinner but told them she could not get them in, reports the Washington Post. "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," said Michele S. Jones, special assistant to the secretary of defense in a statement released by the White House.
When asked about Jones' statement, Tareq told Lauer the couple would be able to show documentation to back their claim that they were invited guests at the state dinner.
That Black Caucus Ruckus
As mentioned in my previous posting about the Salahis, they also allegedly crashed a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation dinner back in September. After posing for photos with pols and celebs (such as Sen. Roland Burris and wife Berlean, right) and squatting at a reserved table, they were booted from that event by an eagle-eyed CBCF staffer. When asked about that incident by Lauer, Tareq Salahi replied that they had been invited to the CBCF dinner by the Gardner Law Group.Despite reports that they had been shopping around for media outlets to pay them for an exclusive, the Salahis said they had not been paid for the interview with the "Today Show."
One Last Thing About Racial Profiling
I should mention here that columnist and XM Radio show host Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III reached out to me after I questioned the conclusion of his op-ed, "White House Party Crashers Prove Racial Profiling Goes Both Ways." In response to Leon's argument that positive racial profiling of whites had worked in favor of the Salahis getting in to the White House event, I said the fact that Tareq Salahi is Arab-American could very well have worked against them if profiling had been used.
Leon responded by saying, "Yes, Arab-Americans are affected by racial profiling, as are Cubans and others, but many times, it's the visual cues that people respond to first. That was my point. [Tareq] has very light skin and could pass for European, [and he has] a wife with blond hair. That's all. The dynamics of color come in to play within their own cultures as well."
You won't get any argument from me that a white couple would have an easier time than a black couple getting away with the stunt that the Salahis pulled at the state dinner. I do believe that, 100 percent.
I also believe that the advantage of skin color tipped the scales for them, rather than the idea that a publicity-hungry couple is a regular-if unwanted-fixture in the D.C. social circuit. It is highly possible that the Salahis simply looked familiar enough to get over on the lax Secret Service personnel that night.
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Sheryl Huggins Salomon is contributing editor of Black Voices, where she writes about politics and society. She is co-editor of the 'Nia Guide for Black Women' series of self-improvement books and the former publisher of Shade magazine. Follow her on Twitter or contact her at BVCEditor@aol.com.
