DSS Historical Fact of the Day - Archives
March 2016

(U.S. Government image)
Thirty-eight years ago, on March 1, 1978, Sgt. Bobby A. Romero, a Marine Security Guard, died on duty in Paris, France, during a fire at the U.S. Mission to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Romero was 23 and had previously served at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. He is buried at Santa Fe National Cemetery in New Mexico.
The DS Memorial recognizes those who lost their lives in the line of duty while in service to Diplomatic Security. For more information about the DS fallen, see dsmemorial.state.gov.
March 2, 2016
(Arlington National Cemetery photo)
Forty-three years ago, on March 2, 1973, in Khartoum, Sudan, incoming and departing U.S. Ambassadors George Curtis Moore and Cleo Allen Noel, Jr., were found murdered after being kidnapped March 1 by eight members of the Palestinian group Black September. The kidnappers demanded a prisoner exchange. President Richard Nixon appeared on television saying he would not be “giving in to blackmail demands,” setting a decades-long U.S. policy of not negotiating with terrorists. Both ambassadors were shot and killed. Moore and Noel are among the eight U.S. ambassadors killed in the line of duty. Both are buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
March 3, 2016
(U.S. Navy image)
Two hundred thirty-nine years ago today, on March 3, 1777, the Continental Navy dispatch schooner Lynch departed Boston and reached Nantes, France, April 2, with diplomatic correspondence for the American Commissioners in Paris. On May 19, Lynch departed Belle Isle, France, carrying dispatches back to America. She was intercepted by a British warship, HMS Foudroyant. Unable to escape, the ship’s captain was captured before he could run the schooner aground, but he managed to sink the diplomatic dispatches, preventing them from falling into enemy hands. Today, the Diplomatic Security Service continues to protect sensitive U.S. government information, via cyber security as well as a network of diplodiplomatic couriers.
March 4, 2016
(U.S. Department of State photo)
Fourteen years ago, on March 4, 2002, Eric Newton, a former agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration, was found guilty on 10 counts of conspiracy, making false statements, and visa fraud in connection with a scheme to fraudulently obtain visas for Nigerian citizens to enter the United States. The verdict capped a 14-month investigation led by DSS.
March 5, 2016
(U.S. Department of State photo)
One hundred one years ago, between March and September 1915, as the U.S. government sought to maintain neutrality in World War I, German Military Attaché Captain Franz von Papen and Naval Attaché Captain Karl Boy-Ed, both assigned to the German Embassy in Washington, D.C., launched a sabotage campaign in the United States. The attacks included explosions in 10 U.S. factories that produced munitions for the Allied powers, and explosions or fires aboard13 ships that departed U.S. ports for Europe. The German military attachés were also involved in plots to blow up the international railway bridge at Vanceboro, Maine, and the Welland Canal linking Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. As investigations into the attacks unfolded, Secretary of State Robert Lansing decided in 1916 to create a security office that was the forerunner of today’s DSS. Von Papen later became chancellor of Germany immediately before Adolf Hitler.
March 6, 2016
(U.S. Department of State photo)
One hundred one years ago, between March and September 1915, as the U.S. government sought to maintain neutrality in World War I, German Military Attaché Captain Franz von Papen and Naval Attaché Captain Karl Boy-Ed, both assigned to the German Embassy in Washington, D.C., launched a sabotage campaign in the United States. The attacks included explosions in 10 U.S. factories that produced munitions for the Allied powers, and explosions or fires aboard13 ships that departed U.S. ports for Europe. The German military attachés were also involved in plots to blow up the international railway bridge at Vanceboro, Maine, and the Welland Canal linking Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. As investigations into the attacks unfolded, Secretary of State Robert Lansing decided in 1916 to create a security office that was the forerunner of today’s DSS. Von Papen later became chancellor of Germany immediately before Adolf Hitler.
March 7, 2016
(Radek Mica/MF DNES/PROFIMEDIA photo)
Sixteen years ago today, on March 7, 2000, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was targeted by anti-American protestors who threw eggs at her during her visit to Masaryk University in Brno, the Czech Republic. Her DSS protective detail leaped into action to provide cover for the secretary. Secretary Albright emerged unscathed, but the agents were in need of a dry cleaner.
March 8, 2016
(U.S. Department of State photo)
Seventy-one years ago, on March 8, 1945, the FBI submitted a report and recommendations to the Department of State following a security survey requested by Secretary of State Edward Stettinius. The FBI recommended creating a security program that included a security manual and training for Department employees. The FBI also urged the secretary to create a separate “Security Officer” who had authority over security procedures, the ability to conduct security inspections, and jurisdiction over the Office of the Chief Special Agent. Amid a controversy surrounding leaked documents published in a magazine, Stettinius appointed the first security officer in June 1945.
March 9, 2016
(U.S. Department of State image)
Eighteen years ago, in March 1998, DSS special agents had an arrest warrant for Ebong Ipke Akpabio for passport fraud and knew he worked as a taxi driver in Washington, DC. The agents located his cab and hired him to drive them to the DSS Washington Field Office where he was placed under arrest. The agents paid the $28 taxi fare.
March 10, 2016
(AP/Wide World Photos)
Seventeen years ago, in March 1999, Bureau of Diplomatic Security leadership outlined a “Blueprint for DS” in a meeting requested by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (pictured, center, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania) in the wake of the August 1998 terrorist bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. Albright approved the hiring of 300 more special agents and significant expansion of the Regional Security Officer (RSO) program, to include having RSOs become the senior security advisors of overseas embassies and missions, reporting directly to U.S. ambassadors.
March 11, 2016
(U.S. Army Photo)
Ninety-eight years ago, in March 1918, General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing, frustrated by the slow transit of correspondence between Paris and Washington, authorized U.S. Army Major Amos J. Peaslee (pictured) to organize a military courier service. Peaslee’s “Silver Greyhounds” courier team (denoted by the greyhound patch on Peaslee’s shoulder) included seven Army officers and four enlisted men. Within three weeks, transit times for U.S. correspondence between Paris and Washington dropped from roughly five weeks to less than two weeks. In the 1919 Paris peace talks, the Silver Greyhounds were the primary couriers between U.S. officials in Washington and the U.S. delegation in France, led by President Woodrow Wilson. Peaslee became in international lawyer and, in the 1950s, was U.S. ambassador to Australia.
March 12, 2016
(Unknown source)
Eleven years ago today, on March 12, 2005, an explosive device detonated near a U.S. embassy motorcade outside of Baghdad, Iraq, killing two security contractors on the DSS security detail. James Cantrell (photo on left), 28, was a former U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer and avid motorcycle rider. Cantrell is buried at Mount View Cemetery in McMinnville, Tennessee. Bruce Durr (photo on right), 40, was a former Marine sergeant with service in Grenada and Lebanon. Durr is buried in Gregory Cemetery in Magee, Mississippi.
The DS Memorial recognizes those who lost their lives in the line of duty while in service to Diplomatic Security. For more information about the DS fallen, see //2009-2017.state.gov/m/ds/memorial.
March 13, 2016
(People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran image)
Seventeen years ago, in March 1999, special agents from the DSS Los Angeles Field Office led a federal task force investigation that targeted an Iranian criminal enterprise supported by the Mujahedin-E Khalq (MEK), or People's Mujahedin, an Iranian opposition group that was designated as a foreign terrorist organization from 1997 to 2012. MEK raised funds through organized visa, passport, and asylum fraud. The DSS-led task force in mid-March 1999 raided locations in three states and several countries that resulted in the arrest of 31 people; the seizure of more than $2 million in property consisting of houses, vehicles, bank accounts, and personal and business property; and the confiscation of more 150 passports, weapons, and narcotics. The dismantlement of this criminal enterprise significantly disrupted MEK operations that had spanned the western United States.
March 14, 2016
(AP/Wide World Photos)
Five decades ago, U.S. Embassies overseas became symbolic targets for political protests in the late 1960s. These threats challenged long-held notions of diplomatic immunity and the inviolability of embassies. In the photo, a bomb thrown by anti-Vietnam War demonstrators explodes outside the U.S. Embassy in Grosvenor Square, London, United Kingdom, in March 1968. In the second half of the 1960s, U.S. diplomats were increasingly targeted by protesters and militants at a time when the numbers of U.S. diplomatic posts overseas were rapidly expanding. During the June1967 Six-Day War, 22 U.S. embassies and consulates in Arab nations were attacked. In 1968 the U.S. ambassador in Guatemala was assassinated. In 1969 the U.S. ambassador in Brazil was kidnapped. The word “terrorism” was not yet in everyday usage, and special agents with the DSS predecessor organization, the Office of Security, used the term “urban guerilla warfare.”
March 15, 2016
(United States Court of Appeals, North Circuit document)
Fourteen years ago, on March 15, 2002, a jury in the U.S. District Court, Central District of California, found Charles Joseph Avestro Becker guilty on five felony counts, including “fraud and misuse of visas” and “inducing illegal aliens to enter the U.S.” Over the course of 23 years, Becker sold fraudulent visas to more than 3,000 Filipinos, many of whom thought he was acting on behalf of the U.S. government. Upon arrival, he then sold them fraudulent Social Security and immigration documents. Investigators included the DSS Visa Fraud branch and the DSS Los Angeles Field Office, the Philippine National Bureau of Investigation, and the DSS anti-fraud investigator at the U.S. Embassy in Manila. The investigation determined that Becker became a Beverly Hills millionaire by operating his vast alien smuggling ring in the Philippines and the United States. He faced related charges in the Philippines.
March 16, 2016
(U.S. Department of State photo)
Forty-eight years ago, on March 16, 1968, unknown assailants detonated a stick of dynamite outside the U.S. Binational Center in Rancagua, Chile. No one was injured. In this image, the door casing and a broken framed photograph of U.S. President Lyndon Johnson lie across the shattered coffee table. The white marks on the walls are pockmarks from concrete rubble striking the wall. The blast came just four days after an explosion in an unoccupied women’s restroom of U.S. Embassy Santiago, which also had no reported injuries. Terrorist threats to U.S. diplomats and posts were highest in Latin America between 1965 and 1975.
March 17, 2016
(U.S. Department of State photo)
Sixteen years ago, on March 17, 2000, DSS special agents, working in concert with other local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies and the U.S. Department of State’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG), arrested Thomas Carroll, an eight-year veteran of the Foreign Service, for conspiracy to accept a bribe while employed as a public official with the U.S. government.
Carroll had been selling an average of 25 visas per week at $8,000-$10,000 each – approximately $200,000 per week. Carroll, 32, had served for two years at the U.S. Embassy in Georgetown, Guyana. His visa-for-cash scheme grew so massive it affected the U.S.-dollar exchange rate in the small Latin American nation. He was arrested while on home leave in Chicago.
Carroll was tried, convicted, and sentenced to 21 years and 10 months in prison. Additionally, Carroll forfeited approximately $2.5 million in cash and 10 gold bars valued at $300,000.
March 18, 2016
(U.S. Department of State photo)
March 19, 2016
(Private photo collection)
Twenty-five years ago, on March 19, 1991, Poland’s recently elected president began a state visit to the United States. Diplomatic Security Service special agents provided security support for the historic three-day visit by president-elect Walesa, who led Poland’s transition from a communist government to a democratic republic. In the photo, a DSS special agent (rear center) accompanies Walesa upon his arrival in New York.
March 20, 2016
(U.S. Department of State photo)
Fourteen years ago, on March 20, 2002, in Lima, Peru, local law enforcement officer Saul Jesus Diaz Herrera was killed by a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device that detonated across from U.S. Embassy Lima. The DS Memorial recognizes those who lost their lives in the line of duty while in service to Diplomatic Security.
For more information about the DS fallen, see dsmemorial.state.gov.
March 21, 2016
(U.S. Department of State photo)
Fifty-three years ago, on March 21, 1963, the U.S. Department of State created the Office of Communications, which upgraded the Department’s systems from World War II-era technology to state-of-the-art automated communications.
Creation of the new office was one of the changes implemented as a direct result of communications weaknesses encountered during the Cuban Missile Crisis five months earlier.
The new office deployed “high-speed” computers that had 18-bit, 40khz operating systems with a 52kb memory capacity. The Office of Communications also assumed oversight of the pouch and courier service, which evolved into today’s DS Diplomatic Courier Service.
March 22, 2016
(U.S. Library of Congress image)
Ninety-eight years ago, in March 1918, nearly one year after the United States entered World War I, the U.S. Department of State issued the new “Grey Code” for composing all confidential diplomatic telegrams. Up until World War I, diplomatic security was associated mostly with communications security, which involved correspondence and telegrams.
Less than a year after switching to the Grey Code, the Department learned that the code had been compromised, having been acquired by at least one British Legation.
March 23, 2016
(AP/Wide World Photos)
Six years ago, between March 22 and 31, 2008, unidentified individuals launched 42 separate indirect fire attacks against the International Zone, Baghdad, Iraq, killing two U.S. Embassy personnel and one local national; injuring 15 U.S. citizens, six third-country nationals, and 12 local nationals; and damaging several facilities, vehicles, and aircraft.
March 24, 2016
(U.S. Department of State photo)
Six years ago, in March 2010, a Diplomatic Security Service special agent (right) provides security for U.S. diplomatic personnel during a mission to Kabul, Afghanistan.
March 25, 2016
(AP/Wide World Photos)
Twenty-nine years ago, on March 25, 1987, the Department of State ordered the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to stop transmission of all classified communications and processing of classified information. The move came after embassy Marine Security Guard Sgt. Clayton Lonetree (pictured in photo) and Cpl. Arnold Bracy confessed to providing Soviet espionage agents U.S. government documents and access to sensitive areas of the embassy. All communications equipment (a total of 120 crates), as well as the secure conference rooms, were removed and returned to Washington for inspection.
Lonetree was convicted on espionage charges, but charges against Bracy were subsequently dropped.
March 26, 2016
(U.S. Congressional Staff photo)
Eight years ago today, on March 26, 2008: A Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) special agent (left, rear) provided protection to (left to right) U.S. Representative Peter Hoekstra (R-Michigan), U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission John Christopher Stevens, and U.S. Representative John Boehner (R-Ohio) during a meeting with Libya’s Colonel Muammar Qadhafi (at table) inside a tent in the desert near Sirte, Libya.
March 27, 2016
(U.S. Department of State photo)
Three years ago today, on March 27, 2013, Under Secretary of State for Management Patrick F. Kennedy (second from left) joined Diplomatic Security Service Director Gregory B. Starr (second from right) and other DS officials in dedicating the new Foreign Affairs Cybersecurity Center, a state-of-the-art facility for detecting, analyzing, and responding to cyber threats and attacks against U.S. Department of State information systems.
March 28, 2016
(AP/Wide World Photos)
Two years ago, on March 28, 2014, U.S> Secretary of State John Kerry (center) met with a religious leader at the Shrine of the Fallen in Kiev, Ukraine, under the watchful eye of a Diplomatic Security Service special agent (right).
March 29, 2016
(U.S. Department of State photo)
Sixty-three years ago, on March 29, 1953, Diplomatic Courier Willard M. Fisher, Jr., died in the line of duty in an airplane crash in Mkwaja, Tanganyika, in what is now Tanzania.
The DS Memorial recognizes those who lost their lives in the line of duty while in service to Diplomatic Security. For more information about the DS fallen, see dsmemorial.state.gov.
March 30, 2016
(DS Records)
Thirty years ago, on March 30, 1986, members of the U.S. Secretary of State’s detail provided protection to U.S. Secretary of State and Mrs. George P. Shultz (center) as they were greeted on Easter Sunday by Pope John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City.
March 31, 2016
(DS Records)
Forty-seven years ago, on March 31, 1969, Office of Security personnel (rear left, rear in sunglasses, with glasses in front of helmeted police officer, rear center with sunglasses, looking to right, and rear right with sunglasses) provided protection for dignitaries attending the funeral of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Two U.S. Marine Security Guards assigned to the detail are pictured as well. Also in attendance were President and Mrs. Richard M. Nixon (center) were also in attendance.