Detailed Instructions: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Q: Investigators believe that as many as 21 women were brought by U.S. Secret Service and military personnel to the Hotel Caribe in Cartagena, Colombia, last week during a night of carousing, a dramatic increase in the number of women previously disclosed by government officials. 
  
 Officials said 11 Secret Service and 10 military personnel are suspected of misconduct that took place before President Obama arrived in Colombia for an economic summit. Initial reports suggested that the military personnel, some of whom were confined to their rooms after the scandal broke, had violated curfew, while the Secret Service members had engaged with the women, who were allegedly working as prostitutes. 
  
 But Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Tuesday that Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan told her that the preliminary investigation has determined that 20 or 21 women were brought to the hotel last Wednesday night. Agency investigators in Cartagena have obtained copies of the women’s identification cards, which they were required to present at the hotel, and are attempting to interview some of the women, said Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), head of the House Committee on Homeland Security. 
  
 King said investigators have determined that none of the women were minors. 
  
 In a statement, Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said that Sullivan briefed Collins on the investigation “and advised her that 21 U.S. personnel were involved, to include 11 Secret Service personnel. The allegations involved misconduct with women. The exact number of individuals beyond the U.S. personnel is still under investigation.” 
  
 The disclosures make clear that what first appeared to be an isolated case of misbehavior was in fact a night of more widespread debauchery that included heavy drinking and a trip to the Pleyclub, a strip club where the men allegedly paid for women’s services. The participation of two Secret Service supervisors, according to people with knowledge of the investigation, suggests that the men had little fear of repercussions — until hotel workers and Colombian police reported the matter to the U.S. Embassy. 
  
 At his daily briefing, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Obama has “confidence” in Sullivan’s leadership of the Secret Service and is awaiting the results of an internal investigation. 
  
 “Sullivan acted quickly in response to this incident, and he’s overseeing an investigation as we speak,” Carney said. “This incident needs to be investigated, and it is being investigated. We need to see what the investigation reveals. We’re not going to speculate about the conclusions it might reach.” 
  
 Collins, the ranking Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said Sullivan told her that “the most important quality for a Secret Service officer is character. If the facts prove to be as reported on this, this is an incredible lack of character and breach of security, and potentially extremely serious.” 
  
 The Secret Service has revoked the top-secret security clearances of the 11 men under investigation and placed them on administrative leave. The men have also turned in their agency BlackBerrys, said King, who said the men did not have any sensitive documents in their hotel rooms. He added that some of the men said they did not know that the women were prostitutes. 
  
 “Even if they weren’t prostitutes, it’s not right to bring foreigners back to their rooms,” King said. “It would probably be safer if they were prostitutes because then we would know who they were working for.” 
  
 Two of the Secret Service personnel are senior agents paid at the higher levels of the government’s pay scale, according to congressional officials with knowledge of the investigation. 
  
 The two agents, whom one official referred to as “GS-14s,” are near the top of the General Schedule, the compensation system for federal employees. Depending on where the agents are based and other factors, they could earn $110,000 or more annually. Two people with knowledge of the investigation described the men as supervisors. 
  
 Meanwhile, the military is continuing its own investigation of last Wednesday’s incident. 
  
 An Air Force colonel and a military lawyer assigned to lead the inquiry arrived in Colombia on Monday, the same day the military personnel involved flew back to Florida. They include two Marine dog-handlers, five Army Special Forces members, two Navy explosive-ordnance experts and one Air Force member, an official said. 
  
 The personnel have since returned to their home bases, and investigators will contact them by phone or in person, according to Col. Scott Malcom, a spokesman for the U.S. Southern Command. 
  
 “The investigating officer is keenly aware of the high level of interest in this case and the concomitant need for speed,” Malcom said in an e-mail. “However, he also is instructed to conduct a fair, thorough and complete investigation.” 
  
 The military will not set a deadline to finish the inquiry, which will provide recommendations to top commanders on how to proceed, Malcom said. 
  
 Prostitution is legal and regulated in Colombia. But U.S. government agencies have varying restrictions governing the solicitation of prostitutes. 
  
 The State Department, which aims to eliminate human trafficking, specifically forbids all Foreign Service employees and contractors from engaging prostitutes, even in countries where it is legal. 
  
 In June 2008, the agency sent a cable reminding its workers that “irrespective of whether prostitution is legal in the host country, employees should not in any way abet sex trafficking or solicit people in prostitution. DOS employees who engage in this conduct are subject to discipline.” 
  
 The rules at the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service, are more vague. According to the regulations, employees are prohibited from engaging in any “criminal, infamous, dishonest, immoral, or notoriously disgraceful conduct, or other conduct prejudicial to the government,” an official said. 
  
 A military spokesman said soliciting a prostitute could result in a year of confinement, dishonorable discharge, and loss of pay and benefits. 
  
 Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said in a statement Tuesday that the scandal “needs to be thoroughly investigated and, if the allegations are true, people should be punished.” 
  
 Staff writer Greg Jaffe contributed to this report. ||||| U.S. Secret Service director Mark Sullivan has been briefing members of Congress about the allegations that the Secret Service and military personnel brought prostitutes back to their hotel in Colombia last week. NBC's Kristen Welker reports. 
  
 The Colombian prostitute who triggered the scandal that has rocked the Secret Service got angry with two agents who refused to pay her full price for servicing the two of them, leading to a financial dispute over between $40 and $60, according to a government source who has been briefed on the investigation. 
  
 Two agents from the service's elite Counter Assault Team, in Cartagena, Colombia, in advance of President Barack Obama's arrival for the Summit of the Americas over the weekend, had procured the women's services at a local strip club called the Pley Club on the evening of April 11. All the Secret Service agents and officers implicated in the scandal are believed to have gone to the club that evening and brought back women, a U.S. official told NBC News. 
  
 The controversy arose after one of the women went back to a hotel room with two agents. The woman wanted to be paid for serving both agents, the source who has been briefed on the probe told NBC News. Instead, the agents would only agree to split her price, prompting the woman to complain to local police who were stationed in the lobby of the Hotel Caribe, the source said. 
  
 The police then went up to the agents' room and began banging on the door, which the agents at first refused to open, the source said. There are conflicting reports over how the payment dispute was resolved. But two government sources told NBC News the police contacted the U.S. Embassy over the dispute and Embassy officials then arrived at the scene. 
  
 All those with booked rooms at the hotel had to pay a fee of $25 for bringing any guests to their rooms -- and the guests were required to leave some form of identification at the front desk. A quick scan of the hotel register by a U.S. Embassy official established that 11 Secret Service agents had brought back women to their rooms that evening. When Embassy officials notified Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan, he immediately ordered all the agents to fly home, the sources said. 
  
 MSNBC's Thomas Roberts speaks with NBC National Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff and former Secret Service agent and current Senate candidate Dan Bongino about the fallout from the Secret Service prostitution scandal. 
  
 The Secret Service members -- including agents and uniformed officers -- were stripped of their security clearances on Monday. 
  
 Included in that group were two high-level Secret Service supervisors, three counter assault officers whose job is to repel attacks and three sniper-team members, who take to rooftops to secure areas where the president might visit, NBC News reported. 
  
 U.S. officials have described the agents' conduct as a potential security breach especially because all the agents involved had access to the president's day-by-day, minute-by-minute schedule. But one official familiar with the security arrangements said that there were no specific security threats during the president's trip. Although agents upon arrival were briefed about current activities by leftist FARC guerrillas and local drug cartels, they were told neither had made any specific threats to the president. 
  
 The only specific security concern mentioned was that agents and officers were told to bar a left-wing journalist from events at the summit and were given a flier with the journalist's photograph to keep him out, the law enforcement source said. 
  
 The Secret Service sent agents to Colombia to interview the prostitutes who hooked up with the Americans to figure out if the women are under age, involved with terrorism or trafficking in illegal drugs, a lawmaker told NBC News' Luke Russert on Tuesday. 
  
 “They have all their IDs and are conducting an extensive background check to make sure they aren't affiliated with any narcotrafficking or terrorist group or that they could be minors,” Homeland Security chairman Rep. Peter King told Russert. “So far there is no security breach." 
  
 Former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino, who worked in the presidential protection division, shares his view of the scandal involving at least 11 Secret Service personnel and more than 5 military personnel. 
  
 King, who was briefed on the Colombia investigation by Sullivan, confirmed that there were 11 agents and 11 women. 
  
 "The investigation could take a while simply because of the amount of women involved,” King said. “Some are saying they were prostitutes and others say they weren't." 
  
 U.S. military officials told NBC News on Tuesday that 10 American servicemen also were under investigation. According to the officials that includes five Army soldiers, two Navy sailors, two Marines and one Air Force airman. 
  
 One military official says it appears that at least two of the service members were found with prostitutes in their hotel rooms, the same Hotel Caribe where the Secret Service detail stayed. 
  
 It's not clear whether any of the military members were in any way connected to the allegations involving members of the Secret Service at a Cartagena strip club. 
  
 It's also not yet clear whether any of the 10 will face criminal charges. 
  
 House and Senate lawmakers are also looking into the allegations. King told The Associated Press that his committee is devoting four investigators to the probe. 
  
 Meanwhile, one former Secret Service agent, Dan Bongino who is a Republican candidate for Congress in Maryland, told NBC News that in his 12 years at the agency he never saw anything like what is alleged to have taken place in Colombia. 
  
 “I’m not saying it’s never happened, but I never saw it.” Bongino said. He denied there was a culture of partying inside the agency. 
  
 Top US military officer: 'We let the boss down' over prostitute scandal 
  
 A decade ago, however, U.S. News and World Report published an investigative report detailing criminal activity and extreme partying as well as oversight problems. In one reported incident, members of Vice President Dick Cheney’s security detail got into a brawl outside a bar on a trip to the San Diego area. 
  
 New details about the Secret Service personnel alleged to have brought prostitutes to their hotel rooms have emerged, including reports that two of the 11 were supervisors. NBC's Kristen Welker reports. 
  
 As the agency sought to rebuild its image, other high-profile incidents with presidential protection brought more scrutiny. 
  
 In 2008, an Iraqi journalist threw shoes at President George W. Bush during a Baghdad visit. 
  
 And in November 2009 three people crashed a White House state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Michaele and Tareq Salahi and Carlos Allen were able to get past Secret Security agents at the door and enter the party. 
  
 The Salahis even met Obama and had their picture taken with Vice President Joe Biden. In a January 2010 congressional hearing on the matter, the Salahis, who have since divorced, refused to testify, invoking their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. 
  
 The prostitution scandal, however, has brought far more intense focus on the Secret Service and behavior by its agents and officers. 
  
 "This really is the biggest scandal in the history of the Secret Service," Ron Kessler, author of "In the President's Secret Service," told NBC News earlier this week. He said the agency's problems are deeply rooted. 
  
 "There's a culture in the Secret Service that's fostered by the management of just nodding, winking, favoritism," he said. "What the agency needs is an outside director who can come in, clean house, change the standards." 
  
 Michael Isikoff is NBC News' national investigative correspondent; Jim Miklaszewski is NBC News' chief Pentagon correspondent. NBC News Correspondent Luke Russert and msnbc.com reporter Jeff Black also contributed to this report. 
  
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A:
Up to 21 prostitutes may have joined 11 Secret Service agents and not five but as many as nine military personnel in their hotel in Colombia, officials now say. As those numbers tick up, other numbers emerge—related to the payment that brought the scandal to light. The Washington Post talked to insiders in Cartagena who say agents paid $60 each to strip club owners to bring two women to the Hotel Caribe. The next day, one woman sought another $170, prompting the argument that brought the scandal to light. MSNBC, however, talked to a government source who said the prostitute demanded more money for servicing two men, but the source said the argument was over another $40 to $60. In other financial news, it's emerged that two of the Secret Service agents involved were compensated at the top of the agency's pay scale, likely taking in at least $110,000 a year. Secret Service head Mark Sullivan is pushing for an independent investigation of the matter, Sen. Chuck Grassley tells the AP; Sullivan apparently claims he has been getting conflicting reports about whether the women were actually prostitutes.