Embassy Security Languishes

In the mid-1980s the State Department estimated it would cost $3.5 billion to upgrade the security of hundreds of its overseas diplomatic missions, facilities whose vulnerability to terrorist attacks had been searingly demonstrated by the bombing of the Beirut Embassy in 1983. Only about one-fourth of that amount has been appropriated over the years since.

The folly of this limited response was driven home last month with the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Now the Clinton administration is seeking an emergency appropriation of $1.8 billion to improve the security at hundreds of embassies and consulates. It’s late but it’s a start, and Congress should act quickly to get the program launched.

The State Department says that more than 80% of its 260 diplomatic posts need security upgrades. In some cases that could require constructing entirely new facilities to replace those located in busy urban areas where effective defenses against car bombs or direct assaults are impractical. In other cases less costly measures could be used.

Even the biggest investment in improved security will not guarantee terrorist-proof facilities. But improving physical deterrents could help prevent attacks and save lives. At the same time there remains an urgent international need to expand anti-terrorism cooperation, as President Clinton reminded the U.N. General Assembly in his address on Monday.

Even with looming budget surpluses, some budget hawks in Congress say they’ll oppose spending more money on embassy security unless offsetting cuts are made in other programs. How prevalent this attitude may be, and how long it might delay getting started on making embassies safer, is uncertain. What is clear is that it would be utterly irresponsible to elevate a fiscal ideological tenet above what are unarguable security needs for Americans serving their country abroad.