U.S. Armored Cadillacs are Iraq Bomb Bait

[n2doc]

By Spencer Ackerman December 14, 2010 | 11:30 am | Categories: Iraq

In preparation for the day when U.S. diplomats can’t call on the military to get them out of danger in Iraq, the State Department has sent over 900 armored cars to Baghdad. Only one of State’s top watchdogs suggests that those cars are still easy targets for insurgent bombs.

A report released yesterday by Deputy Inspector Howard Geisel into State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security found that the 3,000 armored “sedans, vans, sport utility vehicles and Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles” used by U.S. diplomats around the world are only protected “to a degree” against homemade insurgent bombs (.pdf). Giesel’s report doesn’t specifically look at State’s Iraq operations, even though nearly a third of the department’s armored vehicles are in Iraq. It also didn’t detail the “classified design standards” of the armored cars to protect them from harm, but no matter how armored they are, sedans and SUVs aren’t built to withstand the blasts of insurgents’ roadside bombs.

And Iraq is among the places where the improvised-bomb threat is most acute for diplos. Figures provided to Danger Room last week by the Pentagon’s bomb squad, JIEDDO, show that there are about 500 homemade-bomb attacks in Iraq each month, with around a third of them killing or injuring people.

The report also worries that the trucks themselves are too conspicuous. “Armored Cadillacs” are giving regional security officers pause, “because these vehicles clearly transport American diplomats and have visible American labels and markings.” Gunmen in Colombia have singled out “embassy-owned, white Chevrolet Suburban armored vehicles” as likely diplomatic targets. And while MRAPs are pretty damn hard to blow up, it’s hard to imagine that Iraq insurgents wouldn’t conclude that an MRAP would carry anyone but a U.S. diplomat, either.

more

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/12/u-s-armored-cadillacs-are-iraq-bomb-bait/

[Jackpine Radical]

1. We need a fleet of drone Cadillacs to draw their fire.

The actual diplomats can inconspicuously ride bicycles or something.

[Vinnie From Indy]

2. Damn! You'd think with all that taxpayer money being tossed around

for 900 Cadillacs, they would have at least thrown in some righteous spinny hubcabs and a thumpin' super bass unit.

[FLAprogressive]

3. Do diplomats really need gas guzzlers like Suburbans???

[Ichingcarpenter]

4. I remember my Dad who worked for the Joint Chiefs saying

Many years ago, They are built like tanks, that's why we had a 51 then a 61.

Industrial perfection of a car back then... America's finest.

He said in Afghanistan and third world nations they were used as tanks but now.......?

[obxhead]

5. I'm glad this war is ended and the people are all safe. nt

[Turbineguy]

6. They look that way so that they don't

have to carry a sign that says:

"Large, black, armored vehicle carrying important American person."