Another uninvited guest attended White House dinner for Manmohan Singh

Washington, Jan 5 (ANI): The US secret service has confirmed that another uninvited guest apart from gate-crashers Tareq and Michaele Salahi made it into the White House state dinner hosted in honour of Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh by President Barack Obama on November 24, 2009.

A Secret Service statement released on Monday has revealed that a third individual who was not on the White House guest list entered the event, exposing more holes in the security of President Obama and his state guest.

Tareq and Michaele Salahi attended the State Dinner without invitations and were able to come into contact with President Obama and other senior White House officials, prompting the Secret Service's investigation.

Unlike the Salahis, this newly revealed crasher got into the White House with the official Indian delegation. The key details that have not been officially released include: The man's name, how he came to be with the group of diplomats and how close he got to the president and first lady, The Washington Post reports.

A congressional source 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 White House declined to comment about the breach, although an Obama Administration official, who asked to speak without attribution, said the White House has known about the third crasher since mid-December.

The incident began early the evening of November 24 at the Willard Hotel, where State guest Dr. Singh and his delegation were staying. The Indian Prime Minister travelled 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, The Post reports.

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. (ANI)