Saturday, April 10, 2010

More Foreign Service Reality

Many thanks to Foreign Policy for this piece, which talks about some of the dangers facing people in the Foreign Service. Every so often, some ya-hoo comes along with the same old drivel about how cushy we have it. It is nice to occassionally see a piece recognizing the risks we face to serve.

U.S. Outposts in the Crosshairs

BY PETER WILLIAMS

As the most visible symbols of U.S. foreign policy around the world, embassies have always been a target for political violence. Last weekend’s attack on the U.S. consulate in Peshawar was just the most recent example. But embassies are addressing their vulnerabilities, as the Peshawar case shows: While two consulate employees were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside, the casualties could have been much worse if gunmen had breached the mission’s heavily guarded gate. Following are five U.S. facilities around the world that are ramping up security in response to worsening local conditions.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, at least in the case of CJ, the article had a lot of wrong information. No curfew, no restricted movement other than a warning about one business unrelated to and issued before the killings of our co-workers, the authorized departure was not "in response" to the shootings but actually decoded upon before, and, as far as the investigators have said, we do not know if they were targeted for being US government employees.

Also, I believe the 800 number relates to immigrant visas not passport cases. You'd hope Foreign Policy would know more about such things.

It's nice they know things are difficult, but they should figure out what's going on for real.