3rd state dinner crasher identified as Carlos Allen, a party promoter who likes famous people

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/04/AR2010010403454.html

Secret Service confirms third crasher at White House state dinner
By Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 5, 2010

... A congressional source, who was granted anonymity to speak about the ongoing investigation into porous security at the White House, identified the man as Carlos Allen, a D.C. party promoter who runs an event space in Mount Pleasant. The source saw Allen's name in official e-mails and documents pertaining to the Secret Service probe. Allen, 39, did not respond Monday to repeated e-mails and phone messages. The Post spoke with him last month regarding a comment he made to a blogger about having attended the state dinner; in the brief exchange, he denied knowledge of anything to do with the dinner...

The incident began early the evening of Nov. 24 at the Willard Hotel, where the dinner's guest of honor, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and his delegation were staying. Singh traveled separately, while his entourage of diplomats gathered to be transported to the White House. The State Department was responsible for vetting the list of official delegation members, and the Secret Service sent agents to the hotel to screen them with magnetometers before they boarded the van.

At some point that day, a group of prominent Indian businessmen -- late additions to the dinner guest list -- were allowed to join the officials traveling from the Willard and taken along on the one-block drive. Kessler reports that the Indian Embassy had asked the State Department to ferry the executives to the White House -- an unusual request for guests visiting the United States in a nonofficial capacity. Allen, a U.S. citizen, was among the group of business leaders. After boarding the van, the group was driven to the White House, dropped at an unidentified entrance and not subject to further screenings or checkpoints. Allen -- like the Salahis -- was free to mingle with administration officials and other VIPs at the cocktail reception, but slipped out before guests sat down for dinner around 8:50 p.m.

A spokesman for the Indian Embassy said that the crasher was not a member of the delegation and that the embassy did not arrange for his access, but the spokesman did not respond to requests for comment about how Allen got on the van or if the embassy requested that the State Department add the Indian CEOs to the trip. But apparently he knew someone at the embassy: He rode from the embassy to the Willard with the delegation, according to the congressional source.

On his Web site, Allen promotes his event space as the "HushGalleria Mansion." Like the Salahis, he has a knack for getting himself into photos with famous people: Gen. David Petraeus at one black-tie gala last fall, rapper Drake and actor Jeremy Piven at other events featured on his Facebook page. An acquaintance of Allen's said Monday that she spotted photos of Allen, purportedly at the state dinner, on his Facebook page in the hours after the dinner, but that the photos later disappeared after the Salahi controversy broke...