Thursday, March 24, 2011

Diplomatic Security 2010 Year In Review













Diplomatic Security has just published its 2010 Year in Review.

One item among many stands out for me:

On April 5, six members of the Pakistani Taliban attacked U.S. Consulate General Peshawar in Pakistan with guns, hand grenades, rocket-propelled grenades, suicide vests, and three car bombs. Their plan: a multi-stage mission in which explosives breach the perimeter and combatants flood into the compound for an armed assault.

When the smoke cleared after the Peshawar attack, a crater seven feet long yawned at the Consulate gate. The area was strewn with twisted metal, rocket-propelled grenade shells, and unexploded hand grenades. Four Pakistani officers lay dead, and members of the Consulates’ local guard force were seriously injured. But the Taliban failed to breach the perimeter.


That complex attack on U.S. Consulate Peshawar didn't just fail, you understand. It was foiled, primarily by countermeasures taken by DS. For that and much else, a once a year bit of institutional horn-tooting is deserved.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

TSB: It's the weekend!! See GWB's latest post on what to expect in Libya and elsewhere over the next 3-4 weeks. The security challenges remind him of the "One-eyed cat syndrome".

GWB

Anonymous said...

And don't forget, Afghanistan is going worser fast and Osama is said to have been in Kunar.. where we just left.. Oh, I forgot.. it's 10 years
since 9/11! GWB

Anonymous said...

TSB:http://wlcentral.org/node/1554

The NYU 3/25 legal panel on wikileaks
was a great discussion on C-span/utube. One quote I liked.

"When a diplomat says yes he means maybe. When a diplomat says maybe he means no. When a diplomat says no he is not being a diplomat."
I would add.. when a diplomat keeps
you from the truth forever it's probably Hillary. GWB

Anonymous said...

TSB: This looks like a security problem! Al Quaeda steals all the bullets and then blows up the plant!
Those guys are clever!

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/03/28/143281.html

GWB

TSB said...

On that Yemeni ammo plant, it looks like the fire was set off by scavengers who came by to scarf up whatever was left after AQ looted the place. No doubt someone lit up a smoke or used a lantern while wading ankle-deep in loose gunpowder.

The exact same thing happens in Nigeria a couple times a year when people 'scoop' up fuel after oil pipelines have been broken open by commercial-scale thieves.

Anonymous said...

TSB: Since Sunday looks like the Afghan police are being rounded up and/or run out of Kunar Province on the heels of the US withdrawal from there? GWB

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/southasia/news/article_1629441.php/Taliban-overrun-district-three-NATO-soldiers-killed