Diplomatic Security Service

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The **Diplomatic Security Service** (DSS) is a security and law enforcement agency that acts as the operational division of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, which is a branch of the United States Department of State. Its primary mission is to protect diplomatic assets, personnel and information, as well as combat visa and passport fraud. The agency also undertakes counterterrorism, counterintelligence, cybersecurity and criminal investigations, both domestically and abroad.

Originating from diplomatic security measures enacted during the First World War, the DSS was formally established in 1985 in response to the deadly 1983 bombings of the U.S. embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. It is the leading U.S. law enforcement agency abroad and the most widely deployed in the world, protecting 275 U.S. diplomatic missions in over 170 countries and 29 U.S. cities. DSS special agents are unique in U.S. federal law enforcement for also being members of the Foreign Service.

The agency's most visible activity is providing security to the U.S. Secretary of State, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and other senior diplomats, both domestically and abroad. As part of its duty to provide a safe and secure environment for U.S. diplomacy, the DSS also protects foreign dignitaries, advises U.S. ambassadors on security matters and manages security programs for international events, often in cooperation with domestic and foreign counterparts.

## Protective Mission

The DSS is best identified with its protection assignments around the globe. The largest permanent dignitary protection detail carried out by DSS agents is on the United States Secretary of State. The Ambassador to the United Nations also has an ongoing protection detail. Some U.S. ambassadors receive protection from the DSS in addition to security provided overseas by the host countries, depending on their post. Currently, the protection detail for the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq is one of the largest in the agency's history.

Protections of visiting Heads of States and governments not recognized by the U.S, Foreign ministers from major nations, Other high ranking diplomats and officials perceived as high-risk, are typically covered by DSS. Notable protection details include most major members of the British royal family, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Princess Diana, Yasser Arafat, Zalmay Khalilzad, and Boris Yeltsin. DSS may also provide protection to high-risk private individuals visiting the U.S, such as prominent dissidents or opposition leaders.

The Bureau of Diplomatic Security's Office of Foreign Missions is responsible for the protection of foreign embassies and consulates on U.S. soil. Since the DSS does not have a true uniformed force with police powers, other agencies or local police departments are reimbursed for providing this service; two notables are the Secret Service Uniformed Division in Washington, D.C. and the New York City Police Department. During the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meeting in September, DSS, as well as the U.S. Secret Service and other federal agencies, protect dozens of foreign dignitaries in New York City.

DSS has the authority to provide protection for foreign heads of state and was the lead agency for this role through the early 1970s. However, an order signed by President Richard Nixon gave primary responsibility of protection of visiting heads of state to the Secret Service. Nevertheless, the DSS has expanded its protection mission, including providing security to the heads of Afghanistan, Haiti and Liberia in their respective home countries.

## Investigative Mission

DSS investigations, carried out by numerous Field Offices and Resident Agent offices throughout the U.S, and by RSOs overseas, focus mainly on passport or visa fraud. DSS Special Agents also investigate such cases as human and sex trafficking, document fraud, international parental kidnapping, violations of the Protect Act, assaults on federally protected persons, fugitive arrests overseas (with host nation assistance), counterterrorism and counterintelligence (CI) investigations and international organized crime cases. If there is a nexus to passport and/or visa fraud, use of State Department documents, diplomatic activities, the U.S. Foreign Service, or terrorism, DSS is typically involved.

### Passport and Visa Fraud

U.S. passports and visas are valuable travel documents, and consequently some foreign nationals fraudulently acquire U.S. passports and visas to carry out criminal activities, including terrorism, inside the borders of the United States. It is a federal offense to apply, or assist someone in applying, for a U.S. passport or visa when they are not entitled to one. Usually this means an alien in the U.S. trying to establish a false U.S. identity, or stealing the identity from an American, often one who has died. Visa fraud can also include participating in sham marriages in order to allow an unentitled foreigner to become a U.S. citizen.

Sometimes Americans, including Foreign Service Officers (FSOs), are the target of DSS investigations, such as an FSO selling visas for personal gain. DSS also investigates other alleged improper or illegal behavior by Department of State personnel, to include incidents of espionage. Such cases would involve other agencies, such as the Department of Justice. Overseas DSS must take the role of local and state law enforcement when investigating issues such as spousal or child abuse by U.S. government personnel assigned to the embassy. This is because the host country will not investigate or prosecute diplomats, who are considered to have immunity from their laws. DSS also conducts tens of thousands of background investigations per year, not just for the Department of State, but for other federal agencies as well.

In recent years, DSS has expanded its overseas investigations program with ARSO-I's (Assistant Regional Security Officer-Investigators), also known as "Overseas Criminal Investigators." These agents are given special training in consular functions and are commissioned consular officers. However, they spend a large amount of their time working with the fraud units in consular sections, investigating visa and passport fraud, as well as crimes that have a nexus to those documents, including terrorism, organized crime, trafficking in persons, and narcotics violations. The ARSO-I's may work alien smuggling and human trafficking investigations alongside resident or regional Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agents. Attaché who typically has jurisdictional primacy in these arenas. At the U.S. border, ARSO-I's may work alien smuggling, human trafficking, and passport and visa fraud cases with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and HSI. In addition, ARSO-I's also have responsibilities outside of their respective Consular assignments for mission security.

### Counterintelligence

The Diplomatic Security Service maintains agents in dozens of Joint Terrorism Task Force operations around the country. The Office of Protective Intelligence and Investigations (PII) in the Threat Intelligence and Analysis Division has DSS Special Agents who travel all over the world investigating threats to the Secretary of State and U.S. Embassies and Consulates. Any time there is a threat or an attack against a U.S. Embassy or Consulate, DSS Special Agents are the first on the scene to investigate.

The Rewards for Justice Program (RFJ) is the counterterrorism rewards program of DSS. The Secretary of State is currently offering rewards for information that prevents or favorably resolves acts of international terrorism against U.S. persons or property worldwide.

In the days following the April 15, 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing, DSS Special Agents investigated the incident along with personnel from the FBI, HSI, State Police, Boston Police, Cambridge Police, and other law enforcement agencies; this led to the death of one suspect and the capture of the second suspect.

### Other Investigations

DSS investigates crimes against State Department personnel and other U.S. Government personnel and families assigned under Chief of Mission authority at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate abroad. DSS Special Agents have investigated thefts, assaults, rapes, and murders, among other charges, around the world. Unlike investigations conducted in the United States by other federal agencies, DSS Agents have to work jointly with their foreign counterparts in often hostile areas of the world.

On January 28, 2009, CIA station chief Andrew Warren in Algiers, Algeria was reportedly under investigation by DSS for having allegedly raped two local Muslim women.

### Fugitives

Diplomatic Security Service is tasked with tracking and capturing fugitives who have fled U.S. jurisdiction to avoid prosecution. In 2009, it assisted in the resolution of 136 international fugitive cases from around the globe.

In 1995 DSS Special Agents Jeff Riner and Bill Miller, the RSOs assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan, along with Pakistani police and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), arrested Ramzi Yousef, who was wanted in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York City.

Jared Ravin Yaffe ran a child pornography ring between March and September 2008 by paying babysitters to give him access to children. When police took note, Yaffe fled to North Carolina, Germany, Romania or Bulgaria, and finally Brazil. He traveled under his real name with his own passport and was chased by U.S. Marshals. On February 11, 2009, the United States District Court, Southern District of California issued a federal arrest warrant for Yaffe, and on April 11, Yaffe was profiled on the television show America's Most Wanted. Brazilian federal police caught him on May 11, and he was returned to the United States the next day, where he faced 20 counts in San Diego of child sexual assault, kidnapping, production of child pornography, and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. He initially pled not guilty, and his bail was set at $5 million. A year after his capture, Yaffe pled guilty to several counts and was sentenced to 45 years to life in prison, while a babysitter who had provided a child to him also pled guilty and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. DSS Special Agent Terrance Lawrence was involved in returning Yaffe from Brazil.

On September 19, 2009, Special Agents from the DSS located Derrick Yancey, a former deputy sheriff from DeKalb County, Georgia, in Punta Gorda, Belize. Yancey was wanted in Georgia for double murder of his wife Linda Yancey and a day laborer.

On November 23, 2009, DSS Special Agents from the U.S. Embassy's Regional Security Office (RSO) worked closely with the U.S. Marshals Service, Guatemalan National Police, and INTERPOL to locate alleged murder suspect 24-year-old Ariel Beau Patrick, who was taken into custody in Guatemala. Ariel Patrick was featured on America's Most Wanted.

America's Most Wanted featured the capture of Robert Snyder in Belize, DSS Special Agent (RSO) Rob Kelty was interviewed by John Walsh.

On April 26, 2010, after failing to check in with pretrial services within two days of his April 21 hearing on his bond status, Andrew Warren 42, was apprehended by a combined team of Norfolk Police Department Fugitive Investigators, DSS Special Agents and U.S. Marshals. Judge Ellen S. Huvelle of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a bench warrant for the arrest of the former CIA officer.

On July 30, 2010, special agents from DSS located fugitive George Alvin Viste in Peru. Viste was wanted in Clark County, Washington on seven different criminal charges including the rape of a child, child molestation, and incest. “Diplomatic Security’s Regional Security Office in Lima worked closely with the U.S. Marshals Service and our law enforcement counterparts (INTERPOL) in Peru to locate Viste,” said Jeffrey W. Culver, Director of the Diplomatic Security Service.

On October 8, 2010, DSS agents located Dario Sarimiento Tomas in Pampanga, Philippines. DSS worked with Philippine officials to apprehend Tomas, who was wanted in South Korea on charges that he defrauded an individual there of more than $200,000. Tomas was arrested by law enforcement officials from the Philippine National Bureau of Investigations and National Police. Tomas was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Seoul as a Customs and Border Protection Officer.

On February 3, 2011, Paul Eischeid, a fugitive and member of the Hells Angels who had eluded U.S. Marshals for nearly eight years, was arrested. The accused murderer was arrested in Buenos Aires. An Interpol Red Notice, as well as investigations by the U.S. Marshals Service and DSS in Argentina led to his capture.

On October 5, 2011, in cooperation with the U.S. Marshals Montana Violent Offender Task Force and Belize Police, DSS arrested Michael Patrick McNulty on a $100,000 warrant issued by the state of Montana.

On November 7, 2012, U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) announces the capture of John Earl Gorham. The U.S. Parole Commission issued an arrest warrant for Gorham on Oct. 17, regarding the subject's original conviction of sodomy, kidnapping and assault with the intent to commit sodomy. Gorham was convicted and sentenced to 35 years on these charges. Gorham was arrested for being drunk in public and for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old female at a Chantilly High School football game. The USMS and task force partners from the Diplomatic Security Service located Gorham at his residence on Church Lane in Bowie, MD. The subject was arrested without incident and turned over to the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia for prosecution.

On April 20, 2013, in coordination with Nicaraguan authorities, the FBI's Panama City Legal Attaché Office and the Diplomatic Security's Regional Security Office of the U.S. Embassy in Managua located Eric Justin Toth in Esteli, Nicaragua, where he was placed into custody. His arrest was the result of an exhaustive and well coordinated investigation by the FBI's Washington Field Office, the FBI legal attaché, and Special Agents of the Diplomatic Security Service assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Managua.

## Overseas Mission

### Regional Security Officer

The DSS presence overseas is led at each embassy by a DSS Special Agent known as a Regional Security Officer (RSO), who is in charge of a Regional Security Office and serves as the senior law enforcement advisor and security attaché to the U.S. Ambassador.

Like all members of the Foreign Service, DSS agents cannot remain posted in the U.S. for more than six consecutive years and must eventually be assigned to an overseas post. Once assigned overseas, a DSS agent will typically serve first as a Special Agent called an Assistant Regional Security Officer (ARSO) in a Regional Security Office. Agents who enjoy the overseas lifestyle will try to get a second tour in a Special Agent slot at a large embassy, or possibly serve as a Regional Security Officer (RSO) at a small post or as a Deputy Regional Security Officer (DRSO) at a medium-sized post. Usually after two back-to-back overseas tours, agents will be encouraged to return to the U.S. and serve in a headquarters position before returning overseas as a Regional Security Officer.

DSS has been expanding its criminal role overseas and now has many overseas fraud investigator positions. These positions are referred to as “I” positions, as in “Investigator”, and they are commonly referred to as ARSO-Is. These agents work out of the consular sections of embassies and consulates instead of the Regional Security Offices. The performance of these agents is rated by the RSO or the Deputy RSO and is reviewed by the Consul General.

There are several other overseas positions filled by DSS agents. At new building construction sites, agents will serve as the Site Security Manager (SSM) where they will supervise the overall security of the new building including the Construction Security Technicians (CST) and Cleared American Guards (CAG). For construction at posts where there is a critical counterintelligence (CI) threat, agents will also serve as CI investigators dedicated to preventing compromise of the most sensitive spaces within the new embassy.

It is common for domestically assigned DS agents to serve temporary duty (TDY) at Embassies overseas. Such duty can range from various types of protection duties to RSO support or security training for an overseas post, and may last for as little as a few days to multiple months.

DSS agents have often found themselves in harm's way, with four agents and 28 contract security specialists killed in the line of duty as of July 2006. The vast majority of DSS casualties had taken place within the five years in Iraq, where DSS continued to conduct its most critical and dangerous protective missions.

It should be noted, however, that the Regional Security Officer title is currently in an unofficial period of flux and, although not officially sanctioned, some agents posted overseas use derivative titles such as security attaché or only use their agent titles on their business cards.[citation needed] Newer agents generally dislike the title,[citation needed] because it doesn't reflect their law enforcement status, and consider it a vestige of Diplomatic Security's SY days.

According to U.S. law, the title "security officer" is legally defined as someone who is employed by a private entity and is not a law enforcement officer. Additionally, it is noted that RSOs no longer cover multiple countries and are thus not regional. Even some more seasoned agents have taken to referring to themselves as Special Agent-in-Charge/Regional Security Officer on their official biographies.

The method in which the RSO title is implemented also has the potential to create confusion when interacting with outside organizations. It is possible at larger overseas missions with multiple diplomatic facilities located in the same country to have multiple agents with the Regional Security Officer title. India, for example, has an RSO position at the embassy at the Senior Foreign Service level and 4 other RSOs at the consulates at the significantly lower grade 3 level yet all of these agents have the same job title. Sometimes the title Senior Regional Security Officer will be used to help prevent confusion or to indicate that the agent is the most senior in the country.

### Overseas Criminal Investigations Division

The OCI manages all DSS investigative forces abroad, namely Assistant Regional Security Officer-Investigators (ARSO-Is), DSS special agents responsible for ensuring the integrity of the U.S. passport and visa system. Embedded in 120 diplomatic posts across 85 countries, there are roughly 130 ARSO-Is who conduct criminal investigations and work with foreign governments to build a global law enforcement network; they maintain formal partnerships and training programs with foreign police, immigration, and customs officials to target a wide range of criminals, including forgers, smugglers, and terrorists. The division's prevailing goal is to "combat crime where it originates rather than waiting for it to cross U.S. borders."

With its global partners, ARSO-Is help locate and return an average of 300 fugitives to the U.S. annually; missions have included dismantling major human smuggling networks, identifying criminals involved in child exploitation and pornography, ending international scams, and disrupting suspected terrorist travel.

## Special Event Security

In addition to being posted at U.S. missions around the world, DSS agents have worked closely with their foreign counterparts to secure such events as the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy; the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, 2010 World Cup Football Matches and a host of other special events. While the Olympics are the most well-known events, DSS agents have worked with host country security on numerous other large-scale events around the world. For events with a large U.S. presence, such as the Olympics, an Olympic Security Coordinator, always a DSS agent, will be named to manage all of the security and liaison with the host government. All other federal agencies, such as the FBI, ATF, USSS, and DOD components, will report to the DSS agent in charge.

## Training

After a new agent candidate is hired, they begin a nearly nine-month training program that includes the Criminal Investigator Training Program (CITP) at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Glynco, Georgia; a Basic Special Agent Course (BSAC) at the Diplomatic Security Training Center, and courses at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) in Arlington, Virginia. After completion of all initial training, agents are required to pass quarterly re-qualifications on their duty weapons, which include the Glock 19M, Colt Submachine Gun, the Mk18 rifle, and Remington 870 shotgun. A new training facility that will consolidate DSS' various training venues is located at FT Pickette VA. A new special agent is usually assigned to a domestic field office for two to three years before taking on an overseas assignment, although an agent can expect to be sent on frequent temporary duty assignments overseas even when assigned to a domestic post. However, agents may be called overseas much earlier depending on the needs of DSS. As members of the Foreign Service, agents are expected to spend most of their career living and working overseas, often in hazardous environments or less developed countries throughout the world.

* Basic Special Agent Course (BSAC) (including FLETC): 6 months
* Basic Regional Security Office Course (RSO School): 3 months
* (ATLaS): 10.5 weeks
* Language Training: 2–12 months per language
* Basic Field Firearms Officer Course (BFFOC): 2 weeks
* High Risk Environment Firearms Course (HREFC): 3 days

## Weapons

When assigned to the United States special agents are authorized to carry firearms both on and off duty and when assigned overseas are authorized to carry firearms when approved by the chief of mission.

* Glock 19M (primary)
* Glock 26 Gen 4 (secondary & off-duty)
* Remington 870
* Colt M4