U.S. Lax On Embassy Security
A new State Department report finds the U.S. government failed to properly protect the two American embassies that were bombed in Africa last year.
CBS News Correspondent David Martin reports that the panel, known as the Accountability Review Board, also accuses the government of caring more about saving money than saving lives.
The 50-page report, prepared by former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman William Crowe, sharply criticizes the State Department for failing to take even the most basic precautions against a vehicle bomb. It claims the department had not even trained embassy personnel how to react to a car or truck bomb.
The report found no evidence that any employee of the U.S. government, including the armed services, did not fulfill his or her duty.
"However, we believe there was a collective failure by several administrations and congresses over the past decades to invest adequate efforts and resources to reduce vulnerability of diplomatic missions around the world to terrorist attack," the report said.
Speaking to reporters at the State Department, Crowe said he expects terrorists to continue targeting U.S. embassies. "We're going to have a lot of embassies in harm's way for a long time," he said.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, speaking at the same press conference, accepted responsibility for the Africa bombings. "It reminds us all that no matter how much we care, no matter how much we do, we can always do more when the lives of our people are on the line." She did not take questions however and did not address the sharp criticism of the State Department in the report.
Reconstructing the Nairobi embassy attack, the report found that when one of the terrorists detonated a hand grenade, people inside the building rushed to the windows to see what had happened. Seconds later, the truck bomb went off, blowing in the windows and decapitating several embassy personnel.
Proper training would have told them to drop to the floor when the grenade went off.
The embassy in Nairobi was particularly vulnerable to a truck bomb since it was located on a major intersection. After the bombing, U.S. Ambassador Prudence Bushnell told CBS News, which broke the story of the report Thursday, that she had repeatedly warned the State Department about the embassy's vulnerability, but was told there wasn't enough money to fix the problem.
"I don't want to accept the lack of resources from the richest country in the world as a reason why we cannot keep American citizens safe," Bushnell said. "I don't find that an acceptable excuse."
The report depicts a mindset in which senior officials were more concerned about policy and budgets than people's lives. State Department officials say they are determined to change that mindset, which has spread throughout the government.
The report found no evidence that any employee of the U.S. government, including the armeservices, did not fulfill his or her duty.
"However, we believe there was a collective failure by several administrations and congresses over the past decades to invest adequate efforts and resources to reduce vulnerability of diplomatic missions around the world to terrorist attack," said one official, quoting from a summary of the report. The official insisted on anonymity.
The board was convened after the near simultaneous bombings at U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August. Twelve Americans were among the 224 people killed in the bombings.
Twelve people have been indicted in the two bombings, believed to have been masterminded by Osama bin Laden, a Saudi who is said be living in Afghanistan.
The twin East African bombings occurred within minutes of each other on Aug. 7. Eleven people were killed at the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam. A much more deadly explosion outside the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi killed 213 people and injured more than 5,000.
U.S. forces retaliated 13 days later, launching cruise missile strikes against alleged terrorist camps in Afghanistan and a chemical plant in Sudan.