State Department security overhaul

The State Department has a new directorate within Diplomatic Security (DSS) that focuses on seventeen high threat diplomatic posts overseas.

Those posts now fall under a High Threat Unit that reports to Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Bill Miller. He was described as "an experienced Diplomatic Security Official" by a senior State Department official. The posts previously fell under the portfolio of Charlene Lamb, another Deputy Assistant Secretary of State. The scope of the expanded High Threat Unit has widened to include Algeria, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Libya, Mauritania, Niger, Pakistan, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia and Yemen. Previously the only posts that fell under the High Threat designation were in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A senior State Department official described the move as part of an "ongoing effort to deal with a world that is constantly changing" and denied that it was a direct reaction to recent events in Benghazi, Libya. The official pointed out that there were direct threats made to U.S. missions in Egypt, Yemen, Sudan and Tunisia around the same time as the fatal Benghazi assault. The attack in Libya resulted in the death of four American personnel including ambassador Chris Stevens.

Two senior officials described the decision to CBS News as a matter of shifting of personnel and resources to "elevate the level" of oversight at risky posts and gave those duties to a specifically assigned Deputy Assistant Secretary. They denied that this was a demotion of Charlene Lamb though these posts no longer fall under her portfolio. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak on the record.

During the night of the September 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Lamb was the U.S. official at Diplomatic Security Command Center who monitored the fatal assault on "multiple open lines" in "almost real-time" via audio-only feeds according to the testimony that she delivered to the House Oversight Committee on October 10. Her hesitant responses during that questioning was widely viewed within the department as damaging to the agency. She described her role as being responsible for the "safety and security of more than 275 diplomatic facilities."

A senior State Department official said that no congressional approval was required for the bureaucratic shift and no new funds were involved. However, the State Department is expected to request from Congress an increase in funding for security purposes at U.S. missions. To ask for any increase is considered a sensitive topic because of the ongoing budget and fiscal issues in Washington and also because of the highly-charged political firestorm that erupted around the Obama Administration's response to the Benghazi attacks.

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[eroteme2]

Has the State Department now decided there may be a problem of terrorist attacks at U.S. missions in the Middle East? I don't believe they like to use the term terrorist, they prefer to call these attacks resulting from misguided activists. But to never refer to these attacks as being conducted by Muslim activists. It might be time for Obama to warn these 'activists' to stop these attacks. He is pretty good at issuing warnings, it is not his fault that nobody pays attention to them, but his friendly media faithfully report all of his stern warnings. Each warning takes care of that problem.

[melbatom]

Now we know why Clinton is retiring and overhaul in is play for the department she heads. That is where our enemy has penetrated our inter government. You can bet 20 years from now we MAY find out about this event. You MUST make it clear to the enemy that we will defend yourselves in all ways that are avaliable to you. Otherwise they will try again and again and again. Lets hope this has scared this adminstration out of its underwear.

[thechooch1]

melbatom oh great another conspiracy theory!

[joesapper]

Well one can only hope there is an active plan behind the name plate of this headline as Stevens Himself called for help outside the regs , because the standing regs were no more than paper thin as he and others found in short time as the first signs of threat appeared .

Long over due !