Diplomatic Security Service
The Diplomatic Security Service is the principal law enforcement and security agency of the United States Department of State. Its primary mission is to protect diplomatic assets, personnel, and information, and combat transnational crimes connected to visa and passport fraud. DSS also conducts counterterrorism, counterintelligence, cybersecurity and criminal investigations domestically and abroad.
Originating in diplomatic security measures implemented during the First World War, DSS was formally established in 1985 following the deadly 1983 bombings of the U.S. embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. It is the leading U.S. law enforcement agency abroad and the most widely deployed in the world, protecting 275 U.S. diplomatic missions in over 170 countries and in more than thirty U.S. cities. As employees of the U.S. State Department, DSS special agents are unique in U.S. federal law enforcement for also being members of the Foreign Service.
The service's most visible activity is providing security to the U.S. secretary of state, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and other senior diplomats. As part of its duty to provide a safe and secure environment for U.S. diplomacy, DSS also protects foreign dignitaries visiting the United States, advises U.S. ambassadors on security matters, and manages security programs for international events, often in cooperation with domestic and foreign counterparts.
Overview
While best known for its security role, DSS is a full-fledged law enforcement agency that conducts international criminal investigations, threat analysis, counterterrorism, counterintelligence, security technology, cybersecurity, and investigations into international human trafficking.The agency employs over 2,500 Foreign Service specialists, including special agents, security engineering officers, security technical specialists, and diplomatic couriers.
DSS agents are federal agents with the power to arrest, carry firearms, serve arrest warrants, and perform other law enforcement activities.
Whereas most U.S. federal law enforcement agents are members of the federal civil service, the majority of DSS special agents are both Foreign Service specialists and law enforcement officers. DSS agents are unique in being required to serve multiple-year tours abroad as a condition of employment.
When not on an overseas assignment, agents serve at DSS headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, or in one of its field or resident offices nationwide.
A small percentage of DSS special agents are members of the State Department's civil service and are not mandated to serve tours overseas; they instead focus on criminal investigations and dignitary protection within the United States.
When assigned to domestic field offices, DSS special agents investigate transnational crimes, passport fraud and visa fraud, and protect visiting foreign dignitaries. They also investigate the activities of foreign intelligence agencies that are focused on the Department of State, assist in apprehending fugitives that have fled the United States, and conduct background checks on State Department employees, applicants, and contractors.
DSS special agents perform law enforcement duties at U.S. missions, provide security assistance, protect senior diplomats, and perform other roles as needed. The ranking DSS special agent at an embassy or consulate holds the title of regional security officer and is often known as the "security attaché."
History
The origins of DSS go back to the early stages of the First World War, when the United States, which sought to maintain its neutrality, found itself the target of espionage, sabotage and passport fraud.German and Austrian spies were known to be conducting operations in New York City using forged or stolen identity papers. In late 1915, Secretary of State Robert Lansing recommended creating an international law enforcement task force within the Department of State to investigate such crimes.
Bureau of Secret Intelligence
When his suggestion failed to gain support, on April 4, 1916, Secretary Lansing, with the authorization of President Woodrow Wilson, created his own task force, the Bureau of Secret Intelligence, which he dubbed "the Secret Service of the Department of State." An off-the-books adjunct to the Division of Information, the Bureau was also known as the Office of the Chief Special Agent, possibly to disguise its sensitive operations.Supported by confidential funds from Secretary Lansing's office, this small force was composed of agents from the U.S. Secret Service, who specialized in counterfeit currency, and agents of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which had the best forensic laboratory in the country.
The agents were overseen by a junior Foreign Service officer, Leland Harrison. Tasked primarily with counterespionage and counterintelligence, the team also investigated passport fraud, protected U.S. and foreign diplomats on U.S. soil, and processed threat reports from overseas posts. Following U.S. entry into the war, the Bureau also interned and exchanged diplomatic officials of enemy powers.
After the war ended, Congress passed laws requiring American citizens to return with passports and resident aliens to enter with visas. State Department agents began investigating subsequent instances of passport and visa fraud. Around this same time State Department agents began protecting distinguished visitors to the United States.
By the 1920s, the chief special agent no longer reported his office's activities directly to the Secretary of State, instead answering to the assistant secretary of state for administration. Within the next two decades major passport fraud activities were detected and neutralized worldwide, often involving both Communists and Nazis.
Office of Security
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 in turn was under the Administration Bureau of the Management Undersecretary. After World War II, SY began expanding its presence overseas, with numerous Regional Security Officer positions created in overseas posts.In 1961, Otto Otepka, then a deputy director of SY, brought to the attention of the U.S. Senate Internal Security Subcommittee deficiencies in the State Department clearance process.
The allegations were traced all the way up to then secretary of state Dean Rusk. Despite multiple awards, appeals from multiple U.S. Senators and not backing down, Secretary Rusk removed Otepka from his position and ultimately unceremoniously fired him.
Starting sometime after World War II, SY began regularly protecting visiting heads of state, but it had done so sporadically since the 1930s. Before his departure in 1947, SY director Bannerman began codifying procedures for overseas security. This process continued in the late 1940s, with a number of RSO positions being created.
From that time and through the early 1970s, the number of agents remained relatively small, hovering around 300, with more than half of these serving overseas at any given time. The April 1983 U.S. embassy bombing was a catharsis for the State Department, which would transform SY into the newly created Diplomatic Security Service, part of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security.
Diplomatic Security Service
Congress formed a commission headed by Admiral Bobby Ray Inman 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.In 1985, Congress created the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, headed by the assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security, and the Diplomatic Security Service, headed by the Director of DSS, who is subordinate to the assistant secretary of state for DS. However, DSS is the federal law enforcement agency, and not the Bureau of Diplomatic Security.
The director of DSS is an active DSS agent and is often referred as the principal deputy assistant secretary, as he/she is senior to the various assistant directors of diplomatic security who hold positions equivalent to deputy assistant secretary.
The PDAS designation signifies the DSS director's preeminence over the other DASs within DSS, while at the same time signifying his/her position under the assistant secretary of state for Diplomatic Security.
The first assistant secretaries for DS were senior Foreign Service officers, while the last several have been retired senior DSS special agents. With the creation of DSS, its ranks grew to well over 1,000 agents. However, by the mid-1990s, 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.
Although DSS was by then a bureau within the State Department, the vast majority of RSOs overseas continued to report to the administration 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 DSS out from under administration officers and placed the RSO directly under the deputy chief of mission in the chain of command at an embassy.
Structure and organization
Outside the Department of State, there is much confusion about the relationship between the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and the Diplomatic Security Service.DS oversees all security-related matters at the Department of State, which includes security at U.S. embassies and consulates. DS has approximately 40,000 employees, of whom roughly 2,500 are Foreign Service specialists within DSS.
As such, DSS is the primary mechanism by which the Bureau of Diplomatic Security accomplishes its law enforcement and security missions.
The Bureau of Diplomatic Security is headed by the assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security, who in turn is served by several deputy assistant secretaries. The principal deputy assistant secretary is the director for the Diplomatic Security Service and is an active DSS special agent.All employees who work for Bureau of Diplomatic Security, including those of DSS, are referred to as DS employees. DSS special agents are frequently assigned to positions within DSS, but occasionally work outside of their bureau structure.
For example, while assigned overseas, Department of State employees are evaluated by their superiors at the embassy or consulate to which they are assigned. In the case of DSS agents, the RSO is rated by the deputy chief of mission and reviewed by the chief of mission. DSS hierarchy has no input on the agent's evaluation, though it does provide instructions to the agent.