Diplomatic Security Service

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Not to be confused with Defense Security Service.

See also the Bureau of Diplomatic Security

Contents

[edit] Agents and personnel

The Diplomatic Security Service is the law enforcement arm of the U.S. State Department. The majority of its Special Agents are members of the Foreign Service and federal law enforcement officers at the same time, making them unique. Unlike all other civilian federal law enforcement officers, these DSS agents must serve multiple-year tours overseas on a regular basis as a condition of employment. A minority of DSS agents are members of the State Department's civil service, and do not serve tours overseas; they focus on criminal work and dignitary protection within the United States. All DSS agents have the power to arrest, carry firearms, and serve arrest warrants and other court process. The State Department's web site says that "Diplomatic Security does not formulate foreign policy. It plays another essential--yet behind the scenes--role: To provide a safe and secure environment for the conduct of U.S. foreign policy. Not only is Diplomatic Security a unique organization in the foreign affairs community--it is the only law enforcement agency with representation in nearly every country in the world".

When assigned to domestic field offices, DSS agents are responsible for conducting investigations into passport and visa fraud as well as providing protection for the United States Secretary of State and others. Overseas, DSS agents are called Regional Security Officers (RSOs), and are charged with the security and law enforcement duties at U.S. missions, embassies, and consular posts. The Diplomatic Security Service is the lead U.S. investigatory agency in cases of international terrorism, although this function may be detailed to the FBI. There are currently about 1,450 DS Special Agents.

DSS agents are hired after a intensive evaluation process that includes a Foreign Service Board of Examiners writing evaluation, knowledge-based test, panel interview and situational judgment exercises carried out by veteran DS agents. Those selected undergo a comprehensive medical examination needed for worldwide availability, as well as an exhaustive background investigation for security clearance at the level of top secret/sensitive compartmentalized information. A final suitability review and vote by a Foreign Service panel evaluates a candidate's overall ability to represent the interests of the United States as a diplomat abroad.

After a new DSS agent is hired, he or she begins a seven-month training program that includes the Criminal Investigator Training Program at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, a Basic Special Agent Course at the Diplomatic Security Training Center, and courses at the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Virginia. A new agent is usually assigned to a domestic field office for two years before taking on an overseas assignment, although an agent can expect to be sent on frequent temporary duty assignments overseas even when assigned to a domestic post. As members of the Foreign Service, agents are expected to spend most of their career living and working overseas, often in hazardous environments or underdeveloped nations throughout the world.

DSS agents have been involved in the investigations of most terrorist attacks on U.S. interests overseas in the past twenty years, including the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, and bombings of two U.S. Embassies in East Africa in 1998. Perhaps most notably, in 1995 DSS agents assigned to the U.S. embassy in Pakistan were involved, along with Pakistani police and intelligence, with arresting Ahmed Ramzi Yousef, who was wanted in connection with the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City.

DSS agents have often found themselves in harms way with four agents and 28-contract security specialists killed in the line of duty thus far. The vast majority of DSS casualties have taken place within the past two years in Iraq where DSS continues to conduct its most critical and dangerous protective missions.

[edit] Protection work

The largest permanent protection detail carried out by DSS agents is on the Secretary of State. DSS Also has an ongoing protection detail on the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. Most all other 'details' are on visiting foreign dignitaries and diplomats, and are on a temporary basis for the duration of a dignitary's visit. Foreign Ministers from important nations, as well as those with threats, are typically covered by DSS. DSS has the authority to provide protection for Foreign Heads of State, and did so through the early 1970s. At that time there was an order signed by President Nixon also giving this authority to the Secret Service, which has protected heads of state ever since. DSS agents have protected such people as Prince Charles, Princess Diana, Yasser Arafat, the Dalai Lama, and Boris Yeltsin (in the days preceding the collapse of the Soviet Union). During the annual UN General Assembly in September, DSS, as well as the USSS, protect many dozens of varied dignitaries, mostly in New York City. DSS may also provide protection to others as assigned, including foreign persons without any government status, but who might have a threat against them. DSS also protects certain US Ambassadors overseas. DSS has also protected or does protect the Presidents of Afghanistan, Haiti and Liberia. What makes these 'details' unique is that the protection, done by U.S. federal agents (DSS,) is carried out overseas, in the protected person's home country.

[edit] Investigations / Passport and visa fraud

DSS investigations, carried out by numerous Field Offices and Resident Agent offices throughout the U.S, as well as by RSOs overseas, focuses mainly on Passport or Visa Fraud. It is a felony to apply or assist someone in applying for a US passport or visa when they are not entitled to one. Usually this means an illegal alien in the U.S. trying to establish a false U.S. identity, or stealing the identity form another American, often one who has died. Sometimes Americans, including Foreign Service Officers (FSOs) are the target of DSS investigations, such as an FSO selling visas for personal gain. DSS also investigates other alleged improper or illegal behavior by Department of State personnel, to include incidents of espionage. In the case of the later the FBI would be necessarily involved as well. Overseas DSS must take the role of local and state law enforcement when investigating issues such as spousal or child abuse by US government personnel assigned to the embassy. This is because the host country will not investigate or prosecute American diplomats who are generally considered to have immunity from their laws. DSS also conducts a large background investigation program.

[edit] Overseas service

A DSS agent must serve a tour of duty of overseas after six years of domestic service, and at least several times thereafter. A DSS agent will typically serve first as an ARSO (assistant RSO), and maybe a second ARSO tour. After at least several years of subsequent domestic service the agent may expect to go out as a Regional Security Officer (RSO). DSS agents may also serve a tour overseas as a construction security manager, or in an anti-fraud position within the consular section of an embassy. It is common for domestically assigned DSS agents to serve temporary duty (TDY) at Embassies overseas. Such duty can range from various types of protection duties to RSO support or security training for an overseas post, and may last for as little as a few days to multiple months.

[edit] History and relationship to the Department of State

The origins of the DSS go back to 1916 with a handful of agents assigned special duties directly by the Secretary of State, Robert Lansing. Headed by a Chief Special Agent, who was also called Special Assistant to the Secretary, these agents worked in Washington, DC, and New York City. This group of agents would sometimes be referred to as the office of the Chief Special Agent. They were operated with private funds from the Secretary's office. Conducting sensitive investigations, they focused mainly on foreign agents and their activities in the United States (this in the days before the FBI or the CIA).

After 1918, when Congress passed laws requiring passports for Americans returning from overseas, and visas for aliens entering the United States, State Department agents began investigating passport and visa fraud. Around this same time State Department agents began protecting distinguished visitors to the United States. During World War I the Chief Special Agent's office had the responsibility for interning and exchanging diplomatic officials of enemy powers. By the 1920s the Chief Special Agent, no longer reporting his office's activities directly to the Secretary of State, began reporting to the Assistant Secretary for Administration. Within the next two decades major passport fraud activities were detected worldwide, often involving both Communists and Nazis. Many of these fraud rings were exposed and stopped. During World War II, State Department agents were once again involved in interning and exchanging diplomatic officials of enemy powers. Around this time the Chief Special Agent's office became known as 'SY', which was short for the office of Security, which in turn was under the Admin. Bureau of the Management Undersecretary. After World War II, 'SY' began expanding its presence overseas, with numerous RSO positions created in overseas posts.

In the decades since then, 'SY' began regularly protecting visiting heads of state, and codifying its procedures for overseas security. However, the number of agents remained relatively small through the 1970s, hovering around 300, with more than half of these serving overseas at any given time. The April 1983 US Embassy bombing was a catharsis for 'SY', which would transform 'SY' into the newly created Diplomatic Security Service, part of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security. Congress formed a commission headed by Admiral Inamn to look into the bombings of U.S. Diplomatic facilities in Beirut. The resultant Inman Report recommended that security at the State Department needed to be elevated to a higher priority. Thus in 1985 Congress created the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, headed by an Assistant Secretary of State. The DSS, technically a sub unit of DS, had a director placed at its head. The Director of DSS is a DSS agent, but is often referred to in the State Department by a term more familiar: Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS), or to be precise the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (PDAS). The PDAS designation signifies the DSS director's preeminence over the other DASs within DS, while at the same time signifying his/her position under the Assistant Secretary for DS. The first several Assistant Secretaries for DS were senior Foreign Service Officers, the last several have been senior law enforcement, brought in from other law enforcement agencies. With the creation of DS and the DSS, its ranks grew to well over 1,000 agents. However, by the mid 90s budget cutbacks were foisted on the U.S. State Department by Congress and the Department in turn trimmed the budget of DSS to the point where it had dwindled to a little over 600 agents. At the time this seemed justified by Department hierarchy who thought DS was growing much too fast in over-reaction to the Beirut bombings.

Although DS was by then a Bureau within the State Department, overseas the vast majority of RSOs continued to report to the Admin officer. This changed in 1999, as fallout from the east Africa embassy bombings of 1998. The terse message from the then Undersecretary for Management announcing the immediate change made it clear that this action was against his best judgment and insinuated that it was done because then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright ordered it. This change stripped DS out from under Admin officers and placed the RSO next to the Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) in the chain of command at an Embassy.

In recent years the Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS), although not autonomous from the U.S. State Department, has been given more leeway in handling its own affairs. The Diplomatic Security Service is by far the largest sub unit of DS, and is considered its heart and corp. Budgetary approvals and allocations and hiring and promotion numbers for DS and DSS still must be cleared through the U.S. State Department. Traditionally DS, and more specifically the Diplomatic Security Service, has had a conflicted relationship with its parent agency, the U.S. State Department. The main mission of the U.S. State Department is not law enforcement, but is of course diplomacy. Having a law enforcement arm has not been an easy fact for the State Department culture to accept. In fact, for a number of years DS was told specifically by the State Department that it was not a law enforcement agency, and the title of Foreign Service Diplomatic Security officer was emphasized while the title of Special Agent was downplayed. The State Department now more readily accepts the 'special agent' terminology.

Looking at its history it becomes apparent there is a pattern of forced changes in relation to security for the U.S. State Department and its facilities overseas (American embassies and consulates). Often this change is the result of a serious incident, such as a terrorist attack on a U.S. mission. Since 1999 and especially after the creation of the U.S. embassies in Kabul and Baghdad there seems to be an increasing acceptance and desire by State Department hierarchy to fully embrace and support the goals of the Diplomatic Security Service. Likewise, DS has been allowed a greater degree of independent action in administering itself and has been allowed to hire new agents at a rate that keeps overall numbers from slipping downward.

[edit] Weapons used by agents

Standard Issue

Former weapons included the Uzi submachine gun and the mini-14 carbine. Stockless or 'shorty' versions of the Remington 870 shotgun may still be found in some DS offices.

[edit] Fictional references to DSS

[edit] References

    • Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
    • 1999 -- On the Inside (Discovery Channel TV show) - State Department Protectors (Knightscenes Productions)
    • 2000 -- Investigative Reports (A&E TV show) - In the Line of Fire (44 Blue Productions)
    • 2001 -- Badges Without Borders (TLC TV show) - Inside the Diplomatic Security Service (Red Apple Entertainment Productions)
    • 2004 -- True Warriors (History Channel TV Show) - Escape from Liberia (Wild Eyes Productions)
    • 2005 -- Heroes Under Fire (History Channel TV Show) - Caught in the Middle (Wild Eyes Productions)
    • 2006 -- Critical Threat - Life in the Bureau of Diplomatic Security (Wild Eyes Productions)

    [edit] External links

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