The new Consul General for the USCG Peshawar arrived last month and has assumed charge. This is one officer who did not just do one week of crash and bang at some Virginia farm.
Robert Reed joined the U.S. Department of State in 1985. His first assignment was in the Diplomatic Security Boston Field Office. He was then transferred to Secretary George Shultz’s protective Detail in 1987, where he served as a Supervisory Agent.
In 1989 he was assigned as an Assistant Regional Security Officer at American Embassy Bonn, Germany followed by a tour in Bamako, Mali, where he served as Regional Security Officer (RSO). In Port-au-Prince, Haiti, he served for three years as RSO followed by an additional year as the Haitian Presidential Security Advisor to then President Rene Preval. After Haiti, Mr. Reed was assigned to Kingston, Jamaica as RSO.
From 2002 to 2006, Mr. Reed was the RSO in London, UK. In 2006 Mr. Reed served in Iraq, as Provincial Reconstruction Team Leader for Karbala and Wasit Provinces. Following a tour as RSO Moscow from 2007 to 2009, he returned to Iraq as the Senior Regional Security Officer, overseeing the U.S. State Department’s largest security program. Prior to his current assignment as the Consul General in Peshawar, Mr. Reed served as the Senior Olympic Security Coordinator, managing the protection of Team USA for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Team USA came out of London without a security hitch. And he gets a promotion to one of the most dangerous assignments in the Foreign Service. But given what happened to USCG Peshawar yesterday, we are pleased that an experienced officer like Mr. Reed is at the helm of this post that has been under siege for the last several years.
Click on photo to view video greeting.
The 2012 Crime and Safety Report has this to say about Peshawar, Pakistan:
The U.S. Department of State rates Peshawar and surrounding areas as “high” for crime, but the overall security environment in Peshawar is inextricably linked to the “critical” terrorist threat that touches all aspects of life for expatriates and locals alike in Northwest Pakistan. Local authorities do not keep reliable crime statistics, and tracking incremental changes in the crime and safety situation is difficult. However, following the Abbottabad raid in May 2011 and the November 2011 Mohmand cross-border incident, anti-American sentiment and continued extremist activity continue to render Peshawar one of the world’s most challenging security environments for westerners. The overall number of terrorist acts in the “settled areas” of Peshawar and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province has fallen compared to prior year figures, but attacks continue to occur, particularly against commercial targets and local government facilities.
[…]
In 2010, the U.S. Consulate weathered a direct assult. In May 2011, a Consulate motorcade was attacked via Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) in the “University Town” neighborhood in Peshawar where the city’s relatively few western-affiliated offices and residences are located.
The September 3, 2012 car bomb attack on USCG Peshawar’s vehicle is just the latest in the persistent targeted attacks of the US presence in Peshawar. We were looking at the YouTube footage below of the mangled vehicle left from the bombing and we are still awestricken that the passengers got away with non-life threatening injuries. See USCG Peshawar: Suicide Car Bomb Targets Consulate Car, Wounds Four Staff and More (Updated)
Via Al Jazeera:
The 2010 OIG inspection report called Peshawar the most dangerous Foreign Service post in the world, and the 2012 CFR did not dispute that characterization. According to the May 2012 CFR, Peshawar is also seriously disadvantaged by the fact that it is viewed through the prism of Islamabad, rather than in its real context as “Afghanistan’s near abroad.”
“This optic understates the realities of both living and security conditions, which are more in line with those in Baghdad and Kabul. It also means that that compensation and benefits afforded to those in Peshawar are not in line with those living in comparable conditions in nearby Afghanistan.”
We wrote this piece last week before the latest attack occurred. We have since learned that the two Americans and two Pakistanis wounded in the vehicle attack are all part of the Diplomatic Security (Regional Security Office) at USCG Peshawar.
Our thoughts are with them, and we hope for their speedy recovery.
Related articles
- Two reported killed in Peshawar blast (dawn.com)
- Deadly blast near US consulate in Peshawar (aljazeera.com)
- Pakistan attack targets Americans (edition.cnn.com)
- Peshawar blast targets US vehicle (dawn.com)
- US Mission Pakistan Gets New Consul Generals for Karachi and for Peshawar (diplopundit.net)
I guess appointing DS Agents as CGs in Pakistan is now a trend. Stephen Fakan was CG in Karachi in 2010.
“Awestricken” is the right word for that armored vehicle. It looks like it performed way beyond expectations.
Thanks for the note TSB. I did not know that CG Fakan was DS. I know you’re on TDY. Hope to hear your take sometime on the Benghazi compound. Stay safe.