By Susan Cornwell
WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (Reuters) – Some U.S. diplomatic posts are
violating security standards for overseas buildings and the
State Department is not keeping track of the exemptions to the
rules it does grant, the department’s inspector general said in
a review released after the attack on the U.S. mission in
Benghazi.
“Inspectors … found conditions of noncompliance with
security standards for which posts had not sought exceptions or
waivers,” the report by Deputy Inspector General Harold Geisel
said.
In 2011, the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic
Security had in its files over 1,000 waivers and exceptions,
some quite old, granting exemptions to security standards at
U.S. diplomatic missions abroad, the report said.
But it was not clear which waivers were still “active,” and
some waivers in the bureau’s files were for buildings that no
longer exist, the report found.
A copy of the two-page, redacted version of the report was
obtained by Reuters. It is now on the inspector general’s
website and dated Jan. 7.
The State Department had no immediate comment on the report.
The inspector general’s review did not mention the Sept. 11,
2012, attack on the diplomatic mission and a nearby CIA facility
in Benghazi, where the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans
were killed. Nor did it describe any exceptions made to security
standards there or at any other post.
But a separate review in December of the Benghazi assault
described security precautions at the U.S. mission in the
eastern Libyan city as “grossly inadequate to deal with the
attack that took place” there.
The December report by an Accountability Review Board
appointed by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton noted
that the U.S. mission at Benghazi was a temporary residential
facility that was exempted from diplomatic office security
standards.
Militants attacked and overwhelmed the U.S. diplomatic
facility in Benghazi in a sustained assault. An FBI
investigation is continuing.
WAREHOUSE SPACE FOR OFFICES
Security standards for U.S. diplomatic facilities around the
world, such as the distance from the property’s perimeter to the
building, are set by law and by the Overseas Security Policy
Board, an interagency body.
Geisel’s report reviewed physical security files and
conditions at 27 overseas posts – about a tenth of the U.S.
diplomatic missions around the world – as well as the files at
the Bureau of Diplomatic Security. The 27 posts were not
identified in the brief unclassified excerpt of the report.
The State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security “does
not regularly review waiver approvals to determine whether they
are still active,” the report said.
“As of August 2011, (the Bureau of Diplomatic Security) had
more than 1,000 exceptions and waivers (to physical security
standards) on file dating back to 1987,” Geisel’s review said.
“Inspectors found waivers for facilities that are no longer
leased by the U.S. government or no longer exist,” said Geisel’s
report. It was sent to Patrick Kennedy, the undersecretary of
state for management
“The most common example was the use of warehouse space for
offices,” it said, adding that office space was required to
meet greater physical security standards than warehouse space.
Geisel’s report said overseas posts should be required to
certify every year that they have been given waivers or
exceptions when they cannot meet security requirements, and the
Bureau of Diplomatic Security should annually update its files.
(Editing by Warren Strobel and Peter Cooney)
