Tuesday, December 07, 2004
Jeddah
You don't need us to tell you the news today. The savages that claim to be adherents of the true faith have struck again- five Consulate employees are reported dead, eleven wounded.
Around the world host country nationals and other non-American employees make up the bulk of our Embassy and Consulate staff and local men and women are employed as security guards outside the "hard-line" (the most secure areas of the building). In most cases involving violence against our missions the local contract guards and police assigned to protect the mission are the first to die and make up the largest number of wounded. You might read or hear in the news that "no-Americans were killed". While we are glad that our bothers and sisters in in the Foreign Service were spared, we grieve the loss of our foreign national colleagues and friends. Our prayers go out to their families.
We give thanks for the Marines on hand in Jeddah, and the Regional Security staff, local guards and Saudi police who stood in harms way to protect our bretheren. For those of our readers working in diplomatic missions, please take a moment tomorrow and thank these men and women at your post.
My final wish for the night is that the two men arrested by Saudi security forces today enjoy the night in a local prison, and whatever "interviews" are taking place and lie ahead. May they be nursed back to health so that they can be tried and publicly executed, and may Allah be righteously pissed at their cowardly attack on unarmed men and women. May they not wait long for their al Qaeda comrades to join them.
12/07/2004 02:20:00 AM posted by Dr. Demarche
Around the world host country nationals and other non-American employees make up the bulk of our Embassy and Consulate staff and local men and women are employed as security guards outside the "hard-line" (the most secure areas of the building). In most cases involving violence against our missions the local contract guards and police assigned to protect the mission are the first to die and make up the largest number of wounded. You might read or hear in the news that "no-Americans were killed". While we are glad that our bothers and sisters in in the Foreign Service were spared, we grieve the loss of our foreign national colleagues and friends. Our prayers go out to their families.
We give thanks for the Marines on hand in Jeddah, and the Regional Security staff, local guards and Saudi police who stood in harms way to protect our bretheren. For those of our readers working in diplomatic missions, please take a moment tomorrow and thank these men and women at your post.
My final wish for the night is that the two men arrested by Saudi security forces today enjoy the night in a local prison, and whatever "interviews" are taking place and lie ahead. May they be nursed back to health so that they can be tried and publicly executed, and may Allah be righteously pissed at their cowardly attack on unarmed men and women. May they not wait long for their al Qaeda comrades to join them.
