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<blockquote data-quote="Jones" data-source="post: 1027071" data-attributes="member: 4805">Re: REAL CLEAR POLITICS.....&nbsp; polls and tracking!I don&#039;t know how that story about Marines in Cairo not being allowed to carry live ammo got started, but it&#039;s not true. Also Marines are not &quot;typically used to protect embassies and other facilities abroad&quot;, the job of the the MSG detachments is to maintain the security of classified information at the embassy and they are only rarely assigned to consulates because classified info is typically not kept at a consulate. They are not bodyguards or gate guards, those roles are filled by DS agents and security forces from the host country. As far as I know physical security at the consulate in Benghazi was being provided by the Libyan government and the ambassador had a team of DS agents with him, which is pretty standard. You can make the point that in this instance it clearly wasn&#039;t enough and I won&#039;t argue with that, but the fact is that physical security for embassies and consulates in the responsibility of the host country, and if they can&#039;t or won&#039;t provide adequate security then we should should probably just pack up and leave until such time as they can do a better job.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jones, post: 1027071, member: 4805"] [b]Re: REAL CLEAR POLITICS..... polls and tracking![/b] I don't know how that story about Marines in Cairo not being allowed to carry live ammo got started, but it's not true. Also Marines are not "typically used to protect embassies and other facilities abroad", the job of the the MSG detachments is to maintain the security of classified information at the embassy and they are only rarely assigned to consulates because classified info is typically not kept at a consulate. They are not bodyguards or gate guards, those roles are filled by DS agents and security forces from the host country. As far as I know physical security at the consulate in Benghazi was being provided by the Libyan government and the ambassador had a team of DS agents with him, which is pretty standard. You can make the point that in this instance it clearly wasn't enough and I won't argue with that, but the fact is that physical security for embassies and consulates in the responsibility of the host country, and if they can't or won't provide adequate security then we should should probably just pack up and leave until such time as they can do a better job. [/QUOTE]

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