Bryan finds more U.S. embassies in Africa at risk to terrorist attacks

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2000 | 10:01 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- America's embassies abroad are at-risk for terrorist strikes, sometimes simply because the buildings are too close to the road, said Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev.

Bryan returned Monday from an eight-nation, taxpayer-paid trip to Africa to view first-hand security risks at U.S. embassies.

Bryan, in his new post as vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, traveled with committee chairman Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala.

"Some of our embassies are greatly exposed, some are literally on the street and are at a presumed risk for terrorist attack," Bryan said.

Embassies on the road are difficult to secure and vulnerable to drive-up bombings, he said.

The trip was planned partly in response to the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in which 232 people were killed including 12 Americans.

Bryan said some new security measures had been implemented at several embassies, including blocking street access to cars around the embassy. But some embassies need more money and work to make them safer, Bryan said.

"In some cases, the answer is we're simply going to have to relocate the embassy," Bryan said.

The U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, have been moved to different locations. The embassy in Kenya is now housed in a building outside Nairobi, Bryan said.

Bryan and Shelby met with ambassadors and CIA officers in Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar, Botswana, South Africa and Namibia.

The officials who outlined security concerns for the senators also briefed them on other terrorism threats, organized crime and money-laundering rackets.

U.S. embassies have been under attack in recent months.

Gunmen with grenade launchers and rifles shot at the embassy in Moscow in March last year. The embassy in Beijing suffered damage from protesters in May. In November, six rockets were fired in the direction of the U.S. and U.N. missions in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Congress last year approved $4.5 billion over five years for security improvements and construction at embassies.

A commission headed by retired Adm. William Crowe, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after the bombings recommended spending $14 billion.

Bryan agreed the United States needs to continue to invest in embassy improvements.

"This is not just a concern in Africa," Bryan said.

The cost of the trip was not yet available, committee staffers said. The senators traveled by military airplane.