Press Guidance: Norway: Update on U.S. Embassy Security Operations

November 6, 2010

In response to media inquiries about U.S. embassy security operations in Oslo:

• We regret that an inflammatory and inaccurate report about a U.S. State Department security program has led to unease and concern among some of our friends.
• The Surveillance Detection Unit is not a secret program, nor is it an intelligence unit. It is exactly what its title states:  a program designed to detect surveillance against U.S. posts overseas. This important Department program emerged from the lessons of such tragic incidents as the Nairobi and Dar es Salaam embassy bombings in 1998, in which our missions had been under hostile surveillance by the terrorists for some time before the attacks.  Unfortunately, this surveillance was not detected. Hundreds of innocent civilians were murdered in those tragic events. As we have learned from recent events throughout Europe, including Norway, no nation is immune from terrorist threats.

• The SDU does not target host country or host country citizens. It is merely a way of detecting suspicious activities near embassy facilities and personnel in cooperation with host authorities responsible for embassy security.
• Norway is a close friend and ally. We fully respect Norwegian law. The U.S. stands ready to answer any questions the Government of Norway might ask us on this or any other matter, and will do so in government to government channels.