Secret Service foiled Islamic State assassination plot against Trump in the Philippines

How the Left would have rejoiced if the Islamic State plot had succeeded.

“How the Secret Service Foiled an Assassination Plot Against Trump by ISIS,” by Marlow Stern, Daily Beast, October 12, 2018 (thanks to Ken):

In November 1996, President Clinton visited Manila for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum. Protests raged in the streets, with American flags being burned, so local police closed down many roads, allowing the Secret Service to chart a specific route for the president’s motorcade. As the president and members of his cabinet traveled from their hotel to the first venue of the day, “There was intelligence that came in, and we at the last minute decided to change the motorcade route,” a former Secret Service agent recalls. “It was determined that al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden had placed a bomb along the route in anticipation of the motorcade coming that way.”

Bin Laden had indeed placed a bomb under a bridge, and just before the president’s motorcade was due to cross it, the Secret Service re-routed the vehicle down a side road. President Clinton (codename: “Eagle”) was safe.

Twenty-one years later, there was a plot against President Trump’s life in Manila—a shocking fact revealed in United States Secret Service: On the Front Line, a two-hour special airing on the National Geographic Channel Sunday night that—for the first time—provides viewers with a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the workings of the Secret Service, and the complex measures they take to protect the president of the United States.

President Trump (codename: “Mogul”) was due to arrive in the bustling city to meet with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and other South Asian leaders at the ASEAN 50 summit in November 2017. Chad Ragan, a special agent in the Presidential Protective Division, was the Secret Service agent in charge for the trip; Audrey Gibson, a special agent in the Protective Intelligence & Assessment Division (aka “The Bubble”), served as his eyes and ears….

“There is credible information that an incident could occur during ASEAN,” says Special Agent Gibson, leading the Secret Service’s personnel brief in Manila. Pointing to a map of ISIS and ISIS-affiliated threat actors, she adds, “As of this week, the Philippines has escalated to a critical threat level.” (Days before the president’s visit, ISIS issued a series of threats—via video—that featured a picture of the president filled with bullets, and a message urging jihadists to “lie in wait” and “ambush” POTUS in the Philippines.)

Prior to President Trump’s arrival on Air Force One, a PID agent informs Special Agent Gibson that he’s come across a credible threat against POTUS—in the form of a tweet reading, “Gonna be in Manila the same time as Trump… I’ll take one for the team lads,” accompanied by a mugshot of Lee Harvey Oswald. And on his Instagram, they find a photo of the male suspect wielding a copy of the book How to Kill: The Definitive History of the Assassin. The PID agents then track his IP address and discover that the man is indeed located in downtown Manila, kilometers away from the president’s hotel, and his social media posts reveal that he is traveling in the direction of the president’s hotel. They continue to monitor him….

If that weren’t enough, Special Agent Gibson and her team learn that an ISIS operative is somewhere in downtown Manila, and is targeting President Trump. And 20 minutes before touchdown, the Secret Service still isn’t sure where the ISIS operative is. “What is going on proactively to track this guy down?” Special Agent Ragan is seen shouting into a phone. “I need an update. Now.”

Special Agent Gibson and her fellow PIC agents soon track down the ISIS operative to Luneta Park, about a mile north of the president’s hotel, where the suspect is reportedly convening with “an associate.” They inform Special Agent Ragan, who then informs the Philippine National Police (PNP), whose officers swarm the park and apprehend the suspects. Crisis averted….

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on Jihad Watch. The featured image is the flag of the U.S. Secret Service by Wikimedia Commons.

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