President Obama said Sunday that he wants the investigation of the prostitution scandal that led 11 U.S. Secret Service agents to be returned home from Cartagena, Colombia, where they had been sent to provide protection for him, to be thorough and rigorous. 
 
 During a news conference Sunday at the conclusion of the Summit of the Americas, Obama said he expects all agents to conduct themselves with “dignity and probity” and all U.S. personnel to “observe the highest standards” when serving abroad. 
 
 If the allegations that the men brought prostitutes to their hotel rooms on Wednesday prove true, Obama said, “then, of course, I’ll be angry.” 
 
 “We’re representing the people of the United States,” he said. 
 
 Obama’s remarks were his first about the growing scandal. The Secret Service placed the men on administrative leave pending an internal investigation. The agents — who were removed from Cartagena on Thursday and replaced with a new team shortly before Obama’s arrival Friday — were returned to Washington and interviewed by the Office of Professional Responsibility, the agency’s internal affairs unit. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Defense Department has ordered its own inquiry after determining that five of its personnel, who were staying at the same hotel as the Secret Service agents, violated curfew on Wednesday night. All of the U.S. personnel were part of Obama’s advance team that was preparing logistics and security for his arrival. 
 
 The alleged misconduct came to light after one of the agents became involved in a dispute with a woman Thursday morning over a payment, and Colombian police reported the matter to the U.S. Embassy. 
 
 The controversy has shifted some attention away from Obama’s trip to the economic summit, at least in the United States, where the media have focused on the accusations of heavy drinking and womanizing. 
 
 Obama was asked about the matter by a reporter in his joint news conference with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. Obama made a point to praise the Secret Service in general, emphasizing that the agency does “very hard work under very stressful circumstances.” 
 
 “I’m very grateful for what they do,” he said. “I will wait until the full investigation [is completed] until I pass final judgment.” 
 
 Lawmakers in Washington were pressing Sunday for more details about the investigation. 
 
 House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), whose panel maintains jurisdiction over all federal agencies, said he has reason to believe that more than 11 agents were involved. 
 
 “We think the number might be higher, and we’re asking for the exact amount of all the people who, quote, were involved,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” 
 
 Issa did not elaborate on that statement, and his office did not respond to follow-up questions from The Washington Post. 
 
 On the talk show, Issa also said: “This kind of a breach is a breach in the federal workforce’s most elite protective unit, and they don’t just protect the president, of course; they protect the Cabinet members, the vice president, the first family, candidates. So when you look at this, you realize if you can have this kind of breakdown, one that could lead to blackmail . . . then we’ve got to ask: Where are the systems in place to prevent this in the future?” 
 
 The Secret Service agents allegedly involved are a mix of special agents, who provide personal protection for the president and other high-level officials, and members of the uniformed division, who handle logistical support and building security, officials briefed on the investigation have said. 
 
 Jon Adler, president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, said a lawyer representing the agents did not want to discuss the matter with reporters until it had been adjudicated. 
 
 Staff writer Joe Davidson contributed to this report. ||||| The frontlines of the sniper wars on the streets of Syria. 
 
 CARTAGENA, Colombia | 
 
 CARTAGENA, Colombia (Reuters) - Gracing the cover of the latest Time magazine and trumpeting his nation's security achievements, President Juan Manuel Santos had hoped the Summit of the Americas would showcase the modern face of Colombia. 
 
 Yet global media coverage from this weekend's gathering of more than 30 heads of state has focused instead on a scandal after members of U.S. President Barack Obama's security detail were caught with prostitutes in historic Cartagena. 
 
 The hotel incident - which has seen 11 Secret Service agents sent home and five servicemen grounded - outraged Colombians proud of their often-vilified country's push to become a major regional player. 
 
 "Colombia is not just prostitutes, drugs and violence, it's much more than that," said Maria Fernanda Martinez, 35, a Colombian tourist on vacation in Cartagena. "There are many better things to show the world." 
 
 U.S. soldiers and contractors backing Colombia in its fight against drug traffickers and Marxist insurgents have in the past been involved in sex scandals in rural areas near army bases. 
 
 A largely successful decade-old offensive against the rebels and cocaine cartels has allowed Colombia to begin shedding its international notoriety for violence and crime. 
 
 "The Colombian Comeback" was how Time put it, below a black-and-white portrait of Santos on its latest edition. "From nearly failed state to emerging global player - in less than a decade." 
 
 "HOW SHAMEFUL" 
 
 Headlines over the weekend, however, were less flattering for the host of the Organization of American States (OAS) meeting. 
 
 "The only media coverage of the summit is the scandal of the gringos and the prostitutes," said one Colombian diplomat based in Europe, who asked not to be named. "How shameful." 
 
 Details of the saga unfolded just as the heads of state began discussing weighty issues such as trade protectionism, Cuba and the war on drugs. 
 
 "I never thought the summit agenda had much hope of being achieved," former opposition presidential candidate Carlos Gaviria told Reuters. "But it turned into more of a media sideshow, a ridiculous distraction, than a serious political meeting of presidents." 
 
 The incident unfolded when the Americans brought a number of prostitutes back to a beachfront hotel near where Obama was due to stay when he arrived the following day, a local police source said. 
 
 At least one member of the security contingent flashed his badge and demanded that hotel staff allow him to remain with a woman, the source said. 
 
 Prostitution is legal in "tolerance zones" in Colombia, though also widely practiced outside those areas without sanction. 
 
 Cartagena residents, who had hoped to project an image of warmth and hospitality to the world, tutted their disapproval. 
 
 "This links Cartagena with prostitution and that's not fair," said Maria Consuelo Ortega, 33, who works in a store in the colonial quarter of the city. 
 
 "How can it be forgotten when it's linked to Obama?" 
 
 (Additional reporting by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Brian Ellsworth and Xavier Briand) ||||| A U.S. Secret Service Agent holds the limousine door as U.S. President Barack Obama arrives at Cleveland Airport in Cleveland, Ohio April 18, 2012. 
 
 WASHINGTON The attorney for some of the Secret Service agents under investigation in a scandal involving prostitutes in Colombia ahead of President Barack Obama's trip, said on Thursday a "trial by mob" was wrong. 
 
 Lawrence Berger's comments to Reuters in a telephone interview came after the Washington Post identified the two supervisors involved as David Randall Chaney, 48, in the international programs division, who was allowed to retire, and Greg Stokes, assistant special agent in charge of the K9 division, who has been notified that he will be fired. 
 
 Berger, general counsel for the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, represents Chaney and Stokes, and took issue with news reports describing the three of the 11 agents who are leaving as being forced out. 
 
 "Nobody has been involuntarily separated from the agency as we speak today, nobody," Berger told Reuters. 
 
 "Mr. Stokes is vigorously defending himself from any of these accusations and will take full advantage of the administrative process that is available to him to do so," Berger said. 
 
 Senior U.S. lawmakers said they expect more Secret Service agents could be forced out of their jobs soon over allegations of misconduct with prostitutes in Colombia. 
 
 Representatives Darrell Issa and Elijah Cummings predicted more fallout from the scandal that arose from a night of partying by Secret Service agents and U.S. military personnel last week in the coastal city of Cartagena just before Obama arrived for the weekend Summit of the Americas. 
 
 The incident embarrassed the United States and overshadowed Obama's participation in the summit. It may be the worst scandal in modern times for the agency tasked with protecting the U.S. president and other senior officials and figures. 
 
 Eleven Secret Service agents and 10 U.S. military personnel allegedly took as many as 21 women back to their beachfront hotel. They were discovered when one woman complained about money, leading to the involvement of the local police. 
 
 OTHERS FACE DISCIPLINE 
 
 The Secret Service said on Wednesday one supervisor was allowed to retire, another supervisor was proposed for removal for cause and a third employee resigned over the allegations. 
 
 The other eight Secret Service employees under investigation may also go, Issa said on Thursday. 
 
 "At the least, they will be reprimanded, dealt with administratively. At the most, they will depart. That's really something the investigation will decide," Issa, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told reporters. 
 
 "It would not surprise me if there were within the next few days additional resignations or firings," said Cummings, the top committee Democrat. Both Cummings and Issa have been briefed by Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan. 
 
 Berger said he was not aware of any other agent leaving as of Thursday, and that such comments were "purely speculation." 
 
 Chaney of Ashburn, Virginia, comes from a long Secret Service tradition. His father, George, who died in August 2011 in Dallas, was also an agent who guarded the children of Dwight D. Eisenhower and served on the personal detail of Lyndon Johnson, according to his obituary. 
 
 Stokes, was a supervisor of the Canine Training Section for the Secret Service's James J. Rowley Training Center. The dogs help protect the president and vice president and work to detect explosives. 
 
 Berger said part of the defense of the agents will be violations of the Privacy Act by people who have provided information about the agents to Congress and the media. 
 
 "There are privacy act protections that absolutely bar this type of disclosure. ... Even to Congress, nobody has been subpoenaed," he said. "So when the record is distorted in such a way as to sharp-shoot our agents like this, yes they're getting a raw deal." 
 
 The eight Secret Service employees who remain under investigation continue to be on administrative leave with their security clearances suspended. 
 
 CONGRESSIONAL PROBES 
 
 Issa said people who "feigned innocence" were the ones that "are going through a process to verify their stories." Another lawmaker, Republican Peter King, has said some of the agents say they did not know the women they brought back to the hotel were prostitutes. 
 
 The U.S. military is conducting its own probe of the incident, which happened overnight from Wednesday to Thursday last week. Obama arrived last Friday. 
 
 At least four congressional committees are looking into what happened in Cartagena. But none so far has announced hearings into the matter. 
 
 The top Democrats on Capitol Hill expressed disgust with the scandal. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the alleged behavior was "stupid," and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi called it a "disgrace." 
 
 The agents involved in the scandal had arrived in Cartagena with the plane that brings the presidential vehicles, a government source said. 
 
 White House spokesman Jay Carney repeated on Thursday that Obama still had "confidence" in Mark Sullivan, the director of the Secret Service. There is also considerable support for Sullivan on Capitol Hill, partly because he reacted quickly, bringing the agents home as soon as the scandal was exposed. 
 
 (Editing by Marilyn W. Thompson, Peter Cooney and Todd Eastham)
– The Summit of the Americas is over, but the prostitution scandal involving Secret Service agents keeps on going, overshadowing what was supposed to be a chance to showcase Colombia to the international community, reports Reuters. "From nearly failed state to emerging global player—in less than a decade" is what Time called Colombia on its latest cover. But because of the scandal, the old Colombia is being broadcast around the world. "The only media coverage of the summit is the scandal of the gringos and the prostitutes," said one Colombian diplomat. "How shameful." As for President Obama, he finally weighed in on the scandal yesterday, calling for a thorough and rigorous investigation into what happened, reports the Washington Post. While defending the Secret Service in general, Obama said if allegations about misconduct prove to be accurate, “then, of course, I'll be angry," he said. That investigation will be expanded beyond Colombia to look at longer patterns of behavior in the Secret Service, said Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of a House panel on government oversight. "Things like this don't happen once if they didn't happen before," said Issa.