An actor dressed as KFC's iconic spokesman breached several layers of security at the United Nations in New York Tuesday, eventually meeting with Ali Treki, the new president of the General Assembly. The "Colonel" showed up at the UN wearing his trademark white suit and black string bow tie and, after being ushered through security by guards, posed for photos in different parts of the headquarters, including one of him shaking hands with Treki.

This, if true, is the classic mark of a security operation that is more or less permeable depending on an entrant's place in the pecking order. If the security officer delays the Secretary General (or someone else high up in the pecking order), he will get in trouble or fired or some other undesirable outcome, so the officer makes sure that he/she doesn't execute the security routine when the Secretary General comes through. Because the security officers are always deciding whether to execute the routine or not, when something they don't really understand come along they tend to error on the side of the entrant being high up ("What the hell is Colonel Sanders doing here ... I don't know but it's probably important. We better walk him through!") It would never happen in an operation where everyone goes through the exact same vetting process, regardless of who they are, prior to be allowed through a particular checkpoint.