STALKING A PERFECT EMBASSY AND MONEY TO BUILD IT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302630049-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 49
• Publication Date: February 19, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

SIT AD-reclassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25: CIA-
ARTICLZ rr
ON RAGEN-31114.....?
NEW YORK TIMES
19 February 1986
State Department
Stalking a Perfect Embassy
and Money to Build It
RDP90-00965R000302630049-8
By BERNARD GWERTZMAN
Special to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 Secre-
tary of State George P. Shultz said re-
cently that in the wake of the Beirut
bombings and other attacks on Amer-
icans, United States diplomats and
their families "are on the front lines
? they are being shot at, they get
killed and we owe it to them to do all
we possibly can to see that a secure
environment is created."
With that in mind, and despite the
budget-cutting mood in Washington
these days, the Reagan Administra-
tion is asking Congress to approve a
$2.8 billion program to replace many
American embassies abroad with
what officials say will be the most
bomb-resistant, spy-proof buildings
ever constructed. Other structures
will be strengthened.
Robert Lamb, who heads the State
Department's new Bureau of Diplo-
matic Security, says the new struc-
tures will have extra-heavy floor sup-
ports, reinforced concrete walls with
fewer windows, full sprinkler fire
protection and special computer and
communications facilities.
The buildings will also be set back
from the street at least 100 feet and
will be surrounded by walls, he said.
None will have underground parking
garages. And lobbies will be designed
so that detection devices are unobtru-
sive but more effective than those
now in place.
Part of a $4A Billion Request
The State Department has already
been strengthening security at exist-
ing embassies. In fact, officials today
credited special security guards at
the American Embassy in Lisbon for
finding a bomb in a diplomat's car be-
fore it went off, thus preventing ex-
tensive damage or injuries.
The construction program would
start in the current fiscal year, and is
part of a request for $4.4 billion in
emergency supplemental appropria-
tions that the department wants to
spend on security over the next five
years, some of it for salaries for more
new guards and for special protection
equipment and devices.
Will a cost-conscious Congress go
along with such an ambitious plan?
Representative Daniel A. Mica,
Democrat of Florida, who heads the
Foreign Affairs subcommittee
charged with approving the requests,
said "it is going to be very hard" to
find the money "while we're cutting
possibly pensions and domestic pro-
grams at home."
"I don't know the way out," he
added, "but the concern is real."
Even some of the program's most
ardent supporters on Capitol Hill say
that the goal of having what are, in ef-
fect, perfect embassies may have to
be scaled down. Nevertheless, at this
stage in the debate, when the State
Department has just informed Con-
gress of the confidential details of the
program, the Administration does not
seem disposed to accept less.
Mr. Lamb fiercely defends the
costs. In an interview, he character-
ized the proposal as "a Presidential
priority," not just a State Depart-
ment request.
"We are going to argue for the eri-
tire amount on the Hill," he said,
"and frankly our support has been en-
couraging."
According to Mr. Lamb, special
task forces from the National Acad-
emy of Sciences have been asked to
provide specifications for the new
buildings to prevent takeovers of the
type that occurred in Teheran and
bomb blasts of the type that de-
stroyed the American Embassy in
Beirut, and to give embassies in Sovi-
et-bloc countries such advanced
shielding technology as to frustrate
spies' efforts to penetrate the walls
electronically.
"We found that no one has the same
kinds of security requirements as an
embassy," Mr. Lamb said. "We're in
an environment which, in many
cases, is totally hostile. But we're not
forts like the military. We can't close
off our base. We have to provide serv-
ices to the public.
"In some cases, thousands of peo-
ple a day come into our embassy for
service. We have to be able to deal
with them efficiently and courteously
while screening out the handful of
people who might do harm."
Following are estimated costs for
some of the more expensive new em-
bassies and other buildings, as de-
scribed in a project list the State De-
partment provided Congress last
week:
1986? Santiago, Chile, $51 million;
Kingston, Jamaica, $55 million;
Amman, Jordan, $45 million; Mus-
cat, Oman, $31 million; Mogadishu,
Somalia, $34 million; Khartoum,
Sudan, $36 million; a building for
arms control delegations in Geneva,
$59 million; Istanbul, Turkey, $46 mil-
lion; Caracas, Venezuela, $45 million.
1987 ? Vienna, $89 million; Brus-
sels, $53 million; Sofia, Bulgaria, $38
million; Bogota, Colombia, $58 mil-
lion; Prague, $71 million; Budapest,
$52 million; Tel Aviv, $83 million;
Jerusalem, for the consulate, $41 mil-
lion; Lima, Peru, $68 mullion.
1988 ? Algiers, $39 million; Ran-
goon, Burma, $39 million; Copenhag-
en, $54 million; Quito, Ecuador, $63
million; Panama, $65 million; Ma-
drid, $51 million; Bangkok, Thailand,
$61 million.
Mr. Lamb says that to build the
"perfect" embassy in the Washington
area would cost a minimum of $158 a
square foot, or $15.8 million for a
modest 100,000-square-foot structure,.
but that to build the same structure
overseas would cost about three
times as much.
Asked why, he replied, "We go into
places where we don't even have
basic services, like our own electrici-
ty, places that don't have sewage;"
"We have to provide things don. er by
civil authorities in 'other countrieti,"
he said. And because of securityte-
quirements, he added, there are lor-
tions of the embassy that we have to
bring in American laborers, with.se-
curity clearances, and this adds ap-
preciably to the task."
Mr. Shultz, in talking receatly
about the security needs, said, "Many
of our overseas posts front onto tipsy
streets."
"Some have, extensive glass . fa-
cades," he said. "Some share walls
with non-U.S. Government tenants.
All this is generally undesirable )ind
simply unacceptable in a great many
situations. The program places' its
highest priority on buildings at loca-
tions where the security threat is
greatest ald which are substantially
below the new standards."
. Buying a Gas Station
In one country, which Mr. Lamb
would not name, the United Stptes
plans to spend $6 million to buy a. gas
station next to the embassy becioise
of concerns that the station might be-
come a staging area for an attack. In
Athens, it plans to spend $10 million to
buy property near the embassy to
give it more isolation.
In addition to $2.8 billion for con-
struction projects through 1990, the
State Department is seeking $1.6 bil-
lion in salaries and expenses for-new
security personnel, bringing the total
in emergency supplemental appro-
priations being sought to $4.4 billion.
But the department's regular budget
also includes an additional $6.2 billion
for security for those years, making
the overall total $10.6 billion.
Senator Jesse Helms, Republican
of North Carolina, asked Mr. Shultz
at a recent hearing what he was doing
to bring other costs down. He reglied:
"1 think we have to look at whether
we need all the posts there_ are,
' whether the posts need to be staffed in
the way they are staffed."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302630049-8