Security agents train to stop the next Benghazi

[Omaha Steve]

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20141111/us-preventing-another-benghazi-eead0c6063.html

Nov 11, 5:12 AM (ET)

By BRADLEY KLAPPER

AT A MILITARY BASE IN VIRGINA (AP) — In long tunics and Bedouin scarves, men kick a soccer ball in front of the U.S. consulate. Women sit and eat. Arabic music rings from the market. A bicyclist waves as he rides toward a stone church and a mosque with a green minaret in the distance.

All appears placid in the imaginary world of Erehwon, "nowhere" spelled backward, a $79 million fantasy city at a U.S. military base in rural Virginia. But it won't be quiet for long. This is where the State Department trains agents for its most dangerous diplomatic posts.

The new recruits know the worst could come at any moment. They peer through the metallic sheen of the consulate windows as snipers stand guard on the roof. The agents scan a landscape complete with the convincing exteriors of a train station, governor's office, bank, apartment building and hospital. Danger could lurk behind any of them.

Two years after the deadly attack on a U.S. facility in Benghazi, Libya, the Diplomatic Security Service that is responsible for protecting some 100,000 Americans around the world has dramatically expanded training.

FULL story at link.



This photograph made using a military issued nightscope, shows members of the US Diplomatic Security Service boarding a helicopter during a field exercise following a simulated ambush on a motorcade during a High Threat training program held at a mock town named Erehwon, "nowhere" spelled backwards, on a rural Virginia military base, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014. Two years after the deadly attack on a U.S. facility in Benghazi, Libya, the Diplomatic Security Service that is responsible for protecting some 100,000 Americans around the world has dramatically expanded training. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)