Washington Blamed for Embassy Deaths

The federal panel charged with fixing the blame for the fatal embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania last August has identified the culprit: the U.S. government. In the words of the panel, headed by Admiral William Crowe, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: "There was a collective failure by several administrations and congresses over the past decades to invest adequate efforts and resources" into embassy security. The Crowe panel concluded that addressing the problem will cost at least $1.5 billion a year and will take 10 years. "This report will simply add even more momentum to pour even more money into embassy security," says TIME diplomatic correspondent Douglas Waller.

"The report illustrates that the government effort to protect diplomatic missions abroad had atrophied over the years," says Waller. After the Iranian hostage crisis of the 1970s, diplomatic security was substantially beefed up. But in the later lean and mean years of budget austerity, resources dried up. "Congress refused to spend the money," says Waller. The result was a tiered level of security based on an assessment of terrorist threats. "In Jordan, for example, the U.S. embassy was built like a bunker that can't be taken down unless you lob nuclear bombs at it," says Waller, "but in lower-threat areas, in places like East Africa, the State Department became tolerant of more security risks." The Crowe report now assures that there will be a shake-up, and an expensive one. The good news is that U.S. diplomats will finally be offered the protection, not just the risk.