When I was a DEA agent stationed at the US Consulate in Milan, Italy from 1982-87, there was a lot going on terror-wise. While I was there, terrorists attacked the Rome and Vienna airports simultaneously. The Achille Lauro cruise ship was hijacked.
Our consulate was housed on two floors of a downtown office building. (We moved from one building to another during my stay.) Security consisted of two or three Italian security guards who would screen visitors. I remember one young guy named Gianni. He had to be the ugliest man in Italy and he was usually preoccupied shmoozing with the good looking ladies who came looking for visas.
At any rate, we had a contingent of Secret Service agents stationed at the consulate. They were involved in investigating the traffic of counterfeit US dollars, which was a big business in Italy. They had little faith in the operations of the State Department.
At one point, the consulate set up a procedure to be followed in case of a terror attack. There was a system set up by which, one employee would call another, who would call another and relay instructions, etc. The USSS guys figured, "screw this". Their procedure was simple: In case of such an emergency, they were all to head to Lugano, just across the Swiss border and meet at a certain hotel.
As I have often said, even during the best of administrations (This was during the Reagan administration), the DOS is a screwed up agency full of arrogant pin heads who think they are smarter than other Americans.
With all the sordid revelations about how State handled security in Benghazi and Hillary Clinton's incredibly cavalier attitude toward classified communications, all this was brought back to me. It's really scary.
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