DATE=11/5/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=U-S / EMBASSIES INSECURE (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-255870
BYLINE=KYLE KING
DATELINE=STATE DEPARTMENT
CONTENT=

VOICED AT: 

TEXT:   An independent advisory committee says U-S 
Embassies around the world are close to the point of 
system failure.  The panel says communications and 
staffing problems could cripple the nation's foreign 
policy.  VOA's Kyle King has this report from the 
State Department.


TEXT:  The harsh independent review of the U-S foreign 
policy apparatus found that many embassies around the 
world had not kept up with modern demands.

The report says U-S embassy staff in Ukraine and 
Angola have been forced to operate out of trailers 
because of inadequate space.

The Chairman of the Panel, New York corporate lawyer 
Lewis Kaden, says many U-S diplomats are not even able 
to send common e-mail messages to each other.

            /// Kaden act /// 

      It is a disgrace, and the report says this in no 
      uncertain terms, that our personnel representing 
      30 agencies can not communicate, either with 
      each other, or with other posts around the 
      world, or with the government back in 
      Washington, the way my organization or your 
      organizations take for granted.

            /// end act ///

The Panel of business and non-government experts 
recommends 200 million dollars should be spent to 
improve information technology and the condition of 
buildings.

But Mr. Kaden cautions, new technology can not replace 
what he calls face to face diplomacy.

            /// Kaden Act /// 

      Today diplomacy means interacting on the ground 
      in an active, aggressive way with groups or 
      individuals in civil society as well as 
      throughout the government, attacking an array of 
      problems on the foreign policy agenda.


            /// end act /// 

The panel, which visited 23 U-S diplomatic posts, says 
some are overstaffed and should be cut back, while 
others in important developing countries need more 
people.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright established the 
Panel, partly in response to the U-S Embassy bombings 
in Kenya and Tanzania last year.

The Panel agreed with earlier recommendations that 
more than one-billion dollars a year be spent on 
embassy security each year for the next ten years.

But in its report the Panel cautioned against turning 
embassies into fortresses.  The report says in 
addition to new communications technology, more must 
be done to rethink the size of embassies and how they 
function.  (Signed)

NEB/KBK/ENE/PT 



05-Nov-1999 16:37 PM EDT (05-Nov-1999 2137 UTC)
NNNN

Source: Voice of America
.