![]() ![]() The embassy had been a target for surveillance from the time it was established in the 1930s, and over the years listening devices and electronic bugs were regularly detected-including in a hand-carved wooden replica of the Great Seal of the United States, presented by Soviet schoolchildren to the U.S. consulates.įurther, during the final decade of the Cold War the courier workload began shifting from documents to cargo shipments in earnest as a result of discoveries at the U.S. embassies in capital cities, but today’s couriers also handle shipments to dozens of U.S. During the 1990s, courier routes typically included only U.S. That’s in part because today’s couriers travel to an everincreasing number of locations. ![]() Yet the number of diplomatic couriers has held steady at just over 100 for the past two decades, Salazar says. Indeed, the evolution of electronic communication from cables to faxes to secure email has largely taken the place of urgent hand-carried dispatches. But the mission is the same as it was 100 years ago-to protect our nation’s classified material, to maintain security of classified material across international borders.” Same Mission, Different Challenges “The courier mission is the same as it was 100 years ago,” explains Jose “Eddie” Salazar, director of the Diplomatic Courier Service. And although Article XXVII of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961 guarantees the inviolability of diplomatic pouches and the couriers who transport them, that doesn’t mean every airport security professional in the world is familiar with international protocols-or willing to adhere to them. They still use the term “pouches,” but as often as not, a modern one can fill an entire shipping pallet. State Department couriers can be found on tarmacs around the world, working with local authorities to facilitate the loading and unloading of sensitive shipments. Day in and day out, we are taking these pouches and trying to get them through places where airport security is trying to prevent unscreened things from getting through.” We’re never inside the friendly confines of the embassy, where people are prepared to cooperate with us. “It takes charm, nerve and self-confidence,” says Stephen Donovan, deputy director of the Diplomatic Courier Service. ![]() But now they also safeguard the shipment of equipment and construction materials to nearly every location where American diplomats live and work. They still supervise the safe delivery of classified documents, of course, as did their predecessors over the past century. Today’s diplomatic couriers are specialized freight and cargo expediters who daily travel the globe safeguarding our nation’s most sensitive shipments. Department of State / Diplomatic Security Service Diplomatic couriers prepare shipments in 2017. ![]()
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