An article on FoxNews.com – “Party Crashers Should Go From White House to Big House” – tells how a “social climbing couple” apparently crashed a White House state dinner party without an invitation, and possibly without a background check that all White House guests must undergo. While exactly how the uninvited pair – Michaele and Tareq Salahi – gained access to the White House is under investigation, the article notes that the incident “was a colossal breakdown of security and staffing procedures.”

According to the article, after the Office of the Social Secretary extends an official invitation on behalf of the President and First Lady to the guest by mail, the guest replies to the invitation by phoning or mailing the following information: name, date of birth, Social Security number, race, and sex. The information is then turned over to the Secret Service and they run a criminal background check on every guest who has accepted the invitation, a procedure is referred to as being “WAVED” since “WAVES” is the acronym used by the Secret Service for their background check procedures for guests, FoxNews.com reported.

However, according to FoxNews.com, if a person arrives at the White House but is not on the guest list, that person’s information must be verified and the Secret Service would require the person to wait while a computer criminal background check is performed. In the case of Michaele and Tareq Salahi – who had their photos taken with President Obama, Vice President Biden, the Prime Minister of India, and some celebrities – it is not yet known if the Secret Service performed a criminal background check on the pair before they passed through security, FoxNews.com reported.

While the party crashers appeared to be only interested in seeking fame and not in harming any invited guests, the fact remains that people with more evil intentions – and without proper security clearance through criminal background checks – could have caused great harm to many important world leaders. Background checks – if done, and done properly – remain an effective screening method used to keep uninvited “guests” out of workplaces everywhere, from the White House to the small corner business.

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