A U.S. State Department Inspector General’s memorandum details a slew of inappropriate behaviors by officials in the State Department, as well as efforts to cover up that wrongdoing. The memo was obtained by CBS News and lists claims of prostitution, sexual assault, and illegal drug use by State Department officials.
CBS News’ John Miller reports that according to an internal State Department Inspector General’s memo, several recent investigations were influenced, manipulated, or simply called off. The memo obtained by CBS News cited eight specific examples. Among them: allegations that a State Department security official in Beirut “engaged in sexual assaults” on foreign nationals hired as embassy guards and the charge and that members of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s security detail “engaged prostitutes while on official trips in foreign countries” — a problem the report says was “endemic.”
The memo also reveals details about an “underground drug ring” was operating near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and supplied State Department security contractors with drugs
Rape, prostitution, drugs – and you thought you were getting bad representation in Congress? America’s representatives to the world can’t control themselves. But don’t worry, they will be held accountable by our amazing rule of law culture.
Aurelia Fedenisn, a former investigator with the State Department’s internal watchdog agency, the Inspector General, told Miller, “We also uncovered several allegations of criminal wrongdoing in cases, some of which never became cases.”
In such cases, DSS agents told the Inspector General’s investigators that senior State Department officials told them to back off, a charge that Fedenisn says is “very” upsetting.
Nothing says accountability like “back off!”
In one instance a State Department official kept slipping away from his protection to have sex with prostitutes in a public park, the issue was brought to the attention of Undersecretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy who let the official return to his post. Not exactly zero tolerance.
The problem with these activities other than them being illegal is the susceptibility of a U.S. official to blackmail by foreign agents when caught using drugs and prostitutes. Foreign intelligence services catch the official in a compromising position – rape, prostitution, drugs – then say in order to keep silent they want a special briefing or access to privileged information. But apparently the fear of illegal leaking by government officials is not really a concern at the State Department.
