[FedCom] Re: Mikhail Gorbachev

[Chris Parris]

>>> 
Last night I was up until 11:30pm PST trying to pick
up something 2 scanners, but nothing. A jet from Point
Mugu was flying around for a couple of hours then RTB.

Chris Parris is right, Mr. Gorbachev must have had his
personal bodyguards with him.

This leads me to ask: Who does the State Department 
protect?
<<<

I have been told that it's basically up to the protectee in most cases.
Some current foreign leaders bring their own security, but State Department
DSS personal and hardware are available if needed or requested. Retired,
former political leaders most likely have private security with them and
State Department may help with peripheral security or motorcade support.

I've been to events with members of the British Royal Family, where DSS was
providing security, but other events with the British Prime Minister, it
was all British security forces. (One female member of the British security
team had the coolest Scots accent on the radio, too!) By the way, some of
the visiting security teams use their normal radio frequencies while in the
US, which can make for some unusual frequency coordination problems. At the
G7 Summit one time, the most interesting frequency to listen to was the
frequency coordinators trying to solve all kinds of bizarre interference
issues.

I'm sure there are extreme cases where DSS or Secret Service might insist
on being part of the security force for a particular visit.

I don't know if it's because of the UN, but on all of my visits to the New
York City area, I always seem to catch the DSS being very busy with some
sort of diplomatic security operation.

-Chris