STATE DEPARTMENT SET TO REORGANIZE SECURITY SYSTEM, MOVE 75 EMBASSIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706810003-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 13, 2011
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: June 26, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706810003-0
BALTIMORE SUN
26 June 1985
WORLD
State Department set to reorganize
security system, move 75 embassies
By Henry Trewhitt _ Washington Bureau of The Sun
WASHINGTON - Confronting
growing terrorism, the State Depart-
ment yesterday announced plans for
a broad reorganization of its security
system at home and abroad and a
S3.5 billion construction program
that will include relocation of 75 em-
bassies.
It accepted in broad outline the
pro2osais from a panel
r
tire Bobbv R. Inman, a former
er
Mputy director Central Intelli-
g=, Congress, with its power of
the purse, is assumed to be in a
generous mood regarding the costs
because of recent attacks on Ameri-
cans abroad.
Altogether. It said, 126 embassies
or consulates, out of 262 in 130
countries, should be rebuilt or relo-
cated. In addition it listed 210 build-
ings used by the United States Infor-
mation Agency, the Agency for Inter-
national Development or the Foreign
Commercial Service of the Com-
merce Department as "candidates
for inclusion in time building pro-
gram."
"We don't expect to get every-
thing we ask or in this program," a
U.S. diplomat remarked, "but there
really is no alternative to much of It."
The report mentioned in passing
the intelligence threat implicit in the
U.S. practice of hiring local nationals
for embassy work in hostile coun-
tries.
Robert E. Lamb, assistant secre-
tary of state for administration, said
a reduction already was under way
in the staff of 200 Soviet nationals
employed by the embassy in Mos-
cow. The Soviet Embassy here hires
fewer than a dozen Americans.
Around the world the U.S. employs
11,000 nationals.
But the construction program
drew the most attention. It would be
added to one now In progress under
which 10 new embassies already are
under construction. Mr. Inman's
panel treated that as only a start.
Mr. Lamb said Secretary of State
George P. Shultz accepted the panel's
report "in principle," and that many
of the recommended steps were be-
ing taken. The only reason for the
hedged language, Mr. Lamb ex-
plained, was that Mr. Inman's group
had made 91 recommendations,
some of which might not be adopted.
But he left no doubt that the primary
ones would be.
The program is expected to re-
quire - at least the construction
phase of it - seven or eight years for
completion. Mr. Lamb has been as-
signed to coordinate the undertaking.
Regarding internal organization,
the study found security responsibil-
ity, allocated in the past as need
arose, widely dispersed in several
State Department offices.
The panel's judgment was blunt.
It cited "dispersion of responsibility,
a dramatically increasing workload,
gross understafiing with a conse-
quent inability to train properly, and
a general loss of control over resourc-
es and priorities."
To correct the weakness It recom-
mended the transfer of counterter-
rorist diplomacy directly to the under
secretary for political affairs. Opera-
tional responsibility, to embrace an
elite, highly trained corps of security
agents, would fall under a new Bu-
reau for Diplomatic Security, headed
by an assistant secretary.
With time, it said, a new Diplo-
matic Security Service shouid'take
over protection of all visiting digni-
taries from the Secret Service. Now,
the Secret Service guards only heads
of government and state, leaving
their families and lesser officials to
the State Department's own security
service. The panel called that system
"inexplicable."
"Understaffing has meant the
agents have had to work longer
hours with inadequate relief," it said,
"enduring unusual stress and poten-
tially compromising the safety of
those they are assigned to protect."
Appointment of the panel last
July followed a series of attacks on
U.S. embassies abroad.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706810003-0