Diplomatic Security 2010 Year In Review

Diplomatic Security has just published its 2010 Year in Review.

One item among many stands out for me:

On April 5, six members of the Pakistani Taliban attacked U.S. Consulate General Peshawar in Pakistan with guns, hand grenades, rocket-propelled grenades, suicide vests, and three car bombs. Their plan: a multi-stage mission in which explosives breach the perimeter and combatants flood into the compound for an armed assault.

When the smoke cleared after the Peshawar attack, a crater seven feet long yawned at the Consulate gate. The area was strewn with twisted metal, rocket-propelled grenade shells, and unexploded hand grenades. Four Pakistani officers lay dead, and members of the Consulates’ local guard force were seriously injured. But the Taliban failed to breach the perimeter.

That complex attack on U.S. Consulate Peshawar didn't just fail, you understand. It was foiled, primarily by countermeasures taken by DS. For that and much else, a once a year bit of institutional horn-tooting is deserved.