If I didn't know better, I'd swear the White House statement issued in response to Friday's frightening security breach was a hostage note.

"The president has full confidence in the Secret Service," it read, "and is grateful to the men and women who day in and day out protect himself, his family and the White House." Of course, President Obama said that. He has to say that publicly. His life and the lives of his family members are in their hands. Privately, I hope Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson are reading the Secret Service the riot act.

As all the stories on the troubling incident have pointed out, fence-jumpers are darned near routine at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. How they get over the fence with so much security around is beyond me. What wasn't routine was how Omar J. Gonzalez, according to prosecutors, not only scaled the fence but sprinted across the North Lawn and into the executive mansion before being stopped. Snipers reportedly didn't shoot at him because he didn't look armed. A knife was found on Gonzalez, and prosecutors said in court Monday that there were 800 rounds of ammunition in his car. More troubling is that the attack dogs, trained to take down an intruder, weren't released. Why?

This is another black eye for an agency that has seen its august reputation lowered. There was the boozing and messing around with prostitutes in Colombia in 2012. There were the three agents sent home from the Netherlands in March after a night of drinking that left one passed out in a hotel hallway. And don't forget about how, in 2011, several agents were pulled from the White House perimeter to keep an eye on the home of the assistant to the service's then-director. This sort of bumbling would be mildly amusing were the consequences not so enormous.

Gonzalez served six years with the Army Special Forces as a sniper, his former stepson told The Post. He also said that Gonzalez was "suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder," adding, "I don't believe he had any intention in hurting anybody. He has served his country for years."

That may be, but I found it rather interesting that the front-page story Monday below the one on the White House breach was a report on the increased risk of criminal behavior by soldiers suffering from PTSD:

"The vast majority of veterans who have suffered mental wounds in combat do not commit crimes, but post-traumatic stress disorder has been found to increase the risk of criminal behavior. . ." Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who reported problems with PTSD and alcohol were seven times as likely to engage in acts of "severe violence" than veterans with neither of those problems, according to a 2014 study conducted by researchers affiliated with the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Thank God the offense was not more serious. The Secret Service has to do better than this.

Jonathan Capehart

Washington Post