Statement by Concerned Foreign Service Officers

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Concerned Foreign Service
Officers has for years lamented that the internal corporate culture of the
State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security promotes the concept that all
things are allowable in defense of the nation's security, and that employees
who perform illegal acts in the name of security will be protected. The
directors of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security's security infrastructure
promote an all-for-one team mentality which encourages agents to view
themselves as being above the law. Complaints of improprieties in
investigations and other activities are routinely ignored. Internal oversight
is a joke and external oversight is blocked. The ugly photos currently making
the news are a particularly ugly manifestation of that culture.

It would be easy for the State Department to dismiss the actions portrayed in
those photos as the aberrant acts of a small group of contractors, who
(apparently routinely) performed such acts beyond the knowledge of the
Department. CFSO believes however that such aberrations do not occur when
organizations promote a culture of accountability. Large-scale improprieties
occur only when perpetrators feel secure that their actions will be either
tolerated or ignored. Leadership in accountability must come from the top.

Concerned Foreign Service Officers hopes that the search for explanations for
the events at the American Embassy in Kabul will not stop at the front lines,
but will also target the culture in the Bureau of Diplomatic Security that
allowed these activities to occur, and those directors of State's security
infrastructure who promote that culture. After Blackwater, Laptopgate and
this, it is time for the Bureau of Diplomatic Security to replace its
post-9/11 cult of anything goes with a true culture of accountability.

SOURCE Concerned Foreign Service Officers

Steven Quayle of Concerned Foreign Service Officers, +1-571-594-7701,
closethebackdoor@yahoo.com