Bureau of Diplomatic Security
The Bureau of Diplomatic Security, commonly known as Diplomatic Security, is the security branch of the United States Department of State. It conducts international investigations, threat analysis, cyber security, counterterrorism, and protection of people, property, and information. Its mission is to provide a safe and secure environment for officials to execute the foreign policy of the United States.
Overview
The Bureau of Diplomatic Security is the political face and parent organization of the Diplomatic Security Service. The DSS consists of over 2,000 special agents who are responsible for protecting visiting foreign dignitaries and U.S. diplomatic missions abroad. The DSS is the primary conduit utilized by the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and the Department of State for security and law enforcement matters. Both acronyms are used interchangeably within the State Department and other agencies.The assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security leads the Bureau of Diplomatic Security. Under the assistant secretary of state are several deputy assistant secretaries; the principal deputy assistant secretary is the director of the Diplomatic Security Service. The director of the DSS is the top-ranking, active special agent in the DSS and leads a force of special agents, diplomatic couriers, security engineering officers, and security technical specialists. Special agents are sometimes referred to as DS agents or DSS agents. Both terms are used interchangeably within the organization and other agencies.
For people who do not work for the Department of State, there is much confusion about the relationship between DS and DSS. Even within the Department of State, there is still some confusion regarding the difference between the two entities. The DSS is a law enforcement agency primarily made up of federal special agents, and the DSS acts as the operational division of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security.
Overseas, DS develops and implements security programs to safeguard all personnel who work in every U.S. diplomatic mission around the world and to protect classified information at these locations. The DS presence overseas is led at each post by a DSS special agent who is referred to as a regional security officer, who serves as the senior law enforcement and security attaché. In the United States, DS protects the secretary of state, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and foreign dignitaries and diplomats who visit the United States. DS has protected Yasser Arafat, the Dalai Lama, and Prince Charles. The agency develops and implements security programs to protect more than one hundred domestic State Department facilities as well as the residence of the secretary of state.
In addition to investigating crimes involving passport and visa fraud, DSS agents are engaged in other types of investigation. In cooperation with appropriate U.S. agencies such as the FBI and the CIA, DSS investigates the activities of foreign intelligence agencies directed against department employees. At the request of other law enforcement agencies, DSS assists in apprehending fugitives who have fled the United States. Personnel security background investigations are conducted on all employees, applicants, and contractors seeking employment with the Department. Intelligence investigations look into terrorist incidents and threats made against State Department employees and facilities throughout the world.
Since 1984, DS has administered the Rewards for Justice Program, which pays monetary rewards of up to $5 million, or in recent years even more, upon special authorization by the secretary of state, to individuals who provide information which substantially leads to the countering of terrorist attacks against United States persons. Through 2001, $62 million had been paid to over forty people in this effort.
History
Bureau of Secret Intelligence
The Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service was formally established in 1916 under Secretary of State Robert Lansing. The office was headed by a chief special agent, who also carried the title of special assistant to the secretary and reported directly to the secretary on special matters.A handful of agents worked out of two locations, Washington, D.C., and New York City, operating on confidential funds from the secretary's office. They conducted sensitive investigations, especially on the operations of foreign agents and their activities in the United States. The Diplomatic Security Service was known as the Bureau of Secret Intelligence at its inception in 1916. The Bureau of Secret Intelligence was also known as U-1, an off-the-books adjunct to the Division of Information. Before the United States entered World War I, German and Austrian spies were conducting operations in New York City. The spies were using forged or stolen identity papers. President Woodrow Wilson authorized the secretary of state to establish a security arm of the Department of State. Three agents were recruited from the United States Secret Service because of their experience with counterfeit documents. Since the U.S. Postal Inspection Service had the best laboratory, the director of the new agency was recruited there.
In 1918, the United States Congress passed legislation requiring passports for Americans traveling abroad and visas for aliens wishing to enter the United States. Shortly thereafter, the chief special agent's office began investigating passport and visa fraud. Special agents also protected distinguished visitors to the United States.
During World War I, the chief special agent's office was given the responsibility for interning and exchanging diplomatic officials of enemy powers and assisting in screening people repatriated from enemy-controlled areas.
The chief special agent began reporting his normal activities to the assistant secretary of state for administration. However, he still retained his title of special assistant to the secretary and reported directly to the secretary on sensitive matters.
With the help of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, security at State expanded and increased the depth of personnel investigations. The chief special agent's office was used not only for security work within the State Department but also in several aspects of immigration control and in the control of crime on the high seas.
In the 1930s, it became clear that there were major passport fraud activities worldwide involving both Communists and Nazis. The chief special agent's office, working as the investigative and identification arm of the Passport Office, successfully exposed several of these subversive operations.
Office of Security (SY)
With the coming of World War II in the minds of the political leaders of America, they decided it was time to develop a separate branch of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security. This new branch would be referred to as the Office of Security, or simply the SY. One major addition to the Bureau of Diplomatic Society stemming from the addition of the Office of Security was the development of security staffs on a regional level. The Office of Security was also responsible for starting the use of overseas agents carrying out various tasks to protect the security of the United States. As the threat of terrorist acts against America grew, the SY expanded its role as a part of the United States Department of State.World War II
In many of these cases, the passport aspect was incidental to a much larger problem—Soviet and German espionage networks. Investigation of passport fraud in New York City led to the discovery of a Soviet intelligence network that, in turn, revealed a number of Soviet agents and American Communist Party members engaged in espionage activities. Although a back-door approach, these investigations succeeded in exposing for the first time the existence of such Soviet operations.With the outbreak of World War II, the office expanded again to manage interning and exchanging diplomatic officials of enemy powers and screening Americans, or those claiming American citizenship, after they were forced to leave occupied territories.
After the war, Secretary of State Edward Stettinius undertook a complete reorganization of the department that directly affected the chief special agent's office. The secretary requested the Federal Bureau of Investigation review and make recommendations on physical and personnel security. One important result of that report was the separation of security functions in the Department.
A new security office was set up, separate from the chief special agent's office. This new Office of Security had a program of regional security staffs in the United States and, for the first time, security officers at missions overseas. Later, security functions were merged and, in 1948, Foreign Correlations was incorporated into the office, bringing in that aspect of security. Also in that year, the Marine Security Guard Program was inaugurated at U.S. embassies.
The Cold War
The discovery of a listening device in the Great Seal at the U.S. embassy in Moscow, known as the Thing, was the catalyst for developing countermeasures technology. By the end of the 1950s, hundreds of listening devices planted by foreign intelligence services were found in U.S. embassies. Also during this decade, a special assignments staff was created to investigate possible misconduct and contact with foreign intelligence services by State Department personnel. This staff worked closely with Central Intelligence Agency and FBI Counterintelligence. Reacting to the crisis in electronic surveillance, SY upgraded its technical security program and began hiring engineers. The assignment of Seabee teams to search for listening devices at the U.S. embassies in Moscow and Warsaw led to the Seabee program within the Department.SY assumed responsibility for the security of Department of State domestic facilities, which included information security, building passes, and the physical security of Department of State facilities.
Beginning in the late 1960s, several ambassadors and department officials were kidnapped or assassinated. These actions highlighted the possible exploitation of U.S. diplomats for political purposes. To meet this new threat, SY increased its protective capabilities.
The rages of terrorism continued, creating a new and increasingly dangerous threat to U.S. citizens and missions abroad, as well as to distinguished visitors to the United States. SY responded to the emerging threat by hiring over a hundred new agents and purchasing vehicles, radios, and other support equipment.
SY published handbooks on terrorism and provided advice for overseas personnel on traveling safely to and from work and how to make their homes safer. SY began to survey U.S. embassies for vulnerability to attack. Security officers received more intensive training and learned new skills, like defensive driving.
In 1961, according to at least one source, Otto Otepka, then the director of SY, brought to the attention of the United States Senate Internal Security Subcommittee deficiencies in the State Department clearance process. The allegations were traced all the way up to then-United States Secretary of State Dean Rusk. Despite multiple awards, appeals from multiple U.S. Senators, and despite having maintained his integrity by not backing down, Secretary Rusk removed Otepka from his position and ultimately fired him.
Today, the Diplomatic Security Counterintelligence Directorate conducts a robust counterintelligence program designed to deter, detect, and neutralize the efforts of foreign intelligence services targeting Department of State personnel, facilities, and diplomatic missions worldwide.
The counterintelligence division conducts aggressive counterintelligence inquires and counterespionage investigations with other U.S. Government agencies. All counterespionage investigations are conducted in close coordination with the FBI in accordance with their statutory mandate to prosecute instances or allegations of suspected espionage. The division conducts numerous counterintelligence and security awareness training programs for all U.S. Government personnel requesting or having access to sensitive Department of State facilities and information. All training programs enhance the understanding of both foreign intelligence and espionage threats and countermeasures, and educate employees on the foreign intelligence environment.
In addition, the office relies on a cadre of security engineers to deter, detect, and neutralize attempts by foreign intelligence services to technically penetrate Department of State office buildings and residences. These efforts range from detecting a simple listening device in the wall to countering the most sophisticated electronic eavesdropping devices and systems.