Security Lapses Cited as Factor in Embassy Attacks

The two U.S. embassies in Africa that were shattered by terrorist bombs in August were vulnerable to attack because of decades of inattention to security, a senior administration official said Thursday, summarizing the findings of an official review board.

The board said many U.S. diplomatic missions around the world have similar deficiencies and are tempting targets for terrorists.

The Accountability Review Board, in a report to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright that will be made public today, concluded that no individual was criminally responsible for the security lapses that led to nearly simultaneous attacks on the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Twelve Americans were among the 224 people killed in the attacks.

“However, we believe there was a collective failure by several administrations and congresses over the past decades to invest adequate efforts and resources to reduce vulnerability of diplomatic missions around the world to terrorist attack,” the official said, reading from a summary of the report.

The board was headed by retired Navy Adm. William Crowe, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and later U.S. ambassador to Britain. The official said the panel lamented that overall embassy security is not much improved from the conditions reported 14 years ago by a commission headed by retired Adm. Bobby Ray Inman.

The report said the government counts on obtaining advance warning of imminent terrorist attacks that would allow diplomatic missions to take emergency precautions.

However, there was no such warning in either Kenya or Tanzania, the official said, and the evidence shows that such warnings are far too rare to be relied upon.

Instead, the official said, the panel called on the administration and Congress to provide “adequate and sustained” funding for security improvements at all vulnerable diplomatic missions.

Although some embassies have been rebuilt as virtual fortresses in recent years, most remain easy targets for attack.

The report said many embassies and consulates, like the ones in Kenya and Tanzania, are on busy streets that offer little protection against car bombs.