Today I got a look at US diplomatic security.

The US Consulate looked very much like a prison. The security is much tighter than a prison though.

There is more or less triple bearer security before you get to the fence. When you approach the one entry port from the street there is a barrier of pillars to step through and a sign saying wait here for the guard.

In a country where it rains a lot it struck me that there is no cover and umbrellas are not permitted. To go there you have to book an appointment online and take a printout of it along.

I stepped past the pillars to wait. A local security policeman stepped out and told me to get behind the pillars, I was too close. Now this is 15 or 20 meters from the guard shack which looks like it could withstand a 5 megaton nuclear blast, but I was too close.

After several minuets a guard arrived with a clipboard. Naturally as it is the US Government and it was a governmental agency that sent me there my name was not on his list. He left to get his partner who spoke better English and to find out what to do, since I did have the appointment slip.

Some how my name was on the second clipboard so that was solved but I still had to stand beside the pillars to await my turn. There was no one else there.

I waited while several other people came and were ushered in. (I didn’t tell you that the website said to arrive an hour before your appointment did I.)

Anyway, I was at last permitted into the security screening area. It was much like the old airport security with a metal detector and a scanning machine for everything you take from you pockets. Not a big deal, except that now I can see that everything is “Case White”.

I did a quick goggle search so I could link you to what that is but it seems that is no longer for public consumption.

Briefly it means that everything is built to withstand a sustained assault by anything that can be carried by two men for up to 15 minuets. And I do mean anything. You would need a tank to pierce the armored glass.

I was buzzed out of the security shack and buzzed into the Consulate building proper. It was about the burst radius of a grenade from the security building and even more secure.

The place you have to report to in there is the Cashier. The guy in front of me had to pay around $600.00 for what ever he had done. I was close enough to hear that part.

It was just a big room with bars on the inside and looked as though it was meant to withstand bombing from the inside.

The staff was enclosed behind more Case White security windows and reinforced concrete walls a bit over two feet thick.

It was otherwise a lot like visiting a DMV. Rather than fixing the problem, like any good government office workers they didn’t help at all.

Maybe I will visit EUCOM Headquarters next. They don’t charge for fouling things up. They do that for free.