Kate, Ambassadors, and 'security'.......

What is it with security?

 

Since 9/11 many of the freedoms that we used to take for granted have been taken away from us in the name of ‘security’, and yet it continues to fail miserably.

 

Take the latest hoo-hah over the Royal bosom.

 

We are told that the offending pix were taken from far away on a public road by a paparazzo with a powerful telephoto lens.

 

It could as easily been a telescopic sight on a sniper rifle.  What on earth were the Royal Protection cops doing to allow her to be exposed to danger in this way in this day?

 

Then there’s the absurd case of Prince Harry.

 

We have seen the pictures of a mobile phone which is actually a murder weapon containing four .22 rounds. How come the security bods didn’t frisk the girls before allowing them into Harry’s room? They would have enjoyed that! Perhaps they were more worried about being accused of sexual harassment, which security shakedowns always are.

 

Which brings me to the murder of the Ambassador and attacks on other American Embassies.

 

Some years ago I had occasion to visit the US Embassy in Islamabad. It is built like a fortress. It has massive outer and inner blast walls that tower in the air. Once you have managed to gain access through the entry door, there’s a whole series of checks to get through automatic security doors before even getting to the reception desk. There are marines toting automatic weapons at every corner.

 

On one occasion, the mob tried to torch it (because of ‘The Satanic Verses’, I was told. When pointed out to my guide that Rushdie was Brit, my guide replied ‘Yes, but we don’t like the Americans!’).

 

The marines opened fire, killing a number and that was the end of that.

 

The US Embassy in Kingston Jamaica is built like a fortress, although there is little by way of a terrorist threat there (just as well; many of the staff are accommodated across the road in a single apartment block that would be a prime target for a big bomb). When I last passed it, a huge security wall was being erected.

 

So how come the mobs appear to have gained relatively easy access to US Embassies in some of the riskiest cities in the world? Why was there an insufficiency of armed marine guards?

 

I note that O has now sent a couple of destroyers (eh?) and more marines to trouble spots.

 

Something about stable doors……….?