State Department memo reveals possible cover-ups, halted investigations

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: CBS News

CBS News has uncovered documents that show the State Department may have covered up allegations of illegal and inappropriate behavior within their ranks.

The Diplomatic Security Service, or the DSS, is the State Department's security force, charged with protecting the secretary of state and U.S. ambassadors overseas and with investigating any cases of misconduct on the part of the 70,000 State Department employees worldwide.

CBS News' John Miller reports that according to an internal State Department Inspector General's memo, several recent investigations were influenced, manipulated, or simply called off. The memo obtained by CBS News cited eight specific examples. Among them: allegations that a State Department security official in Beirut "engaged in sexual assaults" on foreign nationals hired as embassy guards and the charge and that members of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's security detail "engaged prostitutes while on official trips in foreign countries" -- a problem the report says was "endemic."

The memo also reveals details about an "underground drug ring" was operating near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and supplied State Department security contractors with drugs.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57588456/state-department-memo-reveals-possible-cover-ups-halted-investigations

[sinkingfeeling]

1. The media sure is busy trying to find a scandal that will stick and make

Hillary look bad.

[Iliyah]

8. Well now they have help

from the left.

[morningfog]

2. Hits keep coming.

[dennis4868]

3. FORGET ABOUT

gun control legislation being passed, jobs bill being passed, immigration reform...it's all scandals all the time. Mission accomplished.

[Ash_F]

4. Let's not forget the Dyncorp(Virginia based) child sex slave trade from Afghanistan

And years before that, Bosnia. Those investigations were also dropped. Is it a any surprise that mercenaries are bottom feeders?

In America, it is a lot easier and safer to look the other way from the big meanies, then to prosecute them. Cowards.

[Ash_F]

5. And before DUer get all knee-jerk defensive, please remember

..that these 'contractors' do not support Dems. Ever.

[RobertEarl]

14. This is the kind of stuff NSA needs to protect us from

Every contractor needs to be surveyed, not me, not you, Ash.

This is a sign of the misdirection of the NSA. We are not being protected from the ravages of our hired contractors. If we were, we'd never see reports like this.

[cheapdate]

6. Since when did "May have been..." become headline news for major news outlets?

I seem to recall a time when news organizations reported on real events.

[Android3.14]

9. It's been for probably at least a century

A news organization often must use modifiers such as "alleged" "may have been" and "possible" because details of wrongdoing often change as investigations move forward.
For example, a fire marshal may be investigating a house burning for arson. It may turn out that arson was not the case, so the news organization would probably use the modification of "Fire marshal investigating possible arson".
The fact that they use the language is actually a good sign.

[cheapdate]

12. Maybe so.

There's little doubt that the nature of media and journalism is always changing and evolving. There have always been demands on news organizations, but the demand to boost web-traffic is certainly a new element.

The concept of news media as propaganda is a perennial argument that won't be solved here.

I understand the need to inform the public about the workings of government, hell, I want to be informed.

But the constant amplification of every "allegation" is getting frustrating. And this CBS piece seems rushed and unnecessarily slanted.

Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like investigative journalism used to involve a lot more investigating.

[Beacool]

7. Oh boy, here we go again!!!

They'll probably blame Hillary, even if they find out that she was unaware of these investigations.

Although, I'm not surprised that the DSS agents went to hookers. That's the same thing that went on with the Secret Service.

[Whisp]

15. There was no cover up in the Secret Service case. They were fired.

It was publicized and then over.

What makes this story a scandal is the cover up.

[jimlup]

10. It seems to me to be the nature of such organizations to have such scandals

So will the left now join forces with the right in a populist movement? I don't think it will fly from either side. So same old same old and so it goes...

[winstars]

11. "Those darn Clintons!!!" Pugs are sooooo, predictable... nt

[Kingofalldems]

13. They sure are predictable.

I expected a thread like this when I logged on today.