State Department Misconduct Alleged In New Watchdog Report

State Department misconduct and a related cover-up are being alleged in a report from the agency’s Inspector General.

According to allegations in the IG’s internal memo about the Diplomatic Security Service, one State Department official in Beirut, Lebanon, sexually assaulted embassy guards, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s bodyguards were messing with prostitutes overseas, a US ambassador was roaming around in public park looking for sex, and drug dealing occurred in the backyard of the US embassy in Baghdad.

Apparently the specific allegations were edited out of the final draft of the report, however. “It is worth noting that in all of these cases, no charges were ever brought forward and all the allegations might have all turned out to be nothing. However, no one knows for sure because the investigations were shut down before they could be completed … The memo was drafted as part of Inspector General’s report on the DSS, and originally contained eight specific references to criminal allegations. The final report was scrubbed of all references.”

Higher-up allegedly told State Department investigators to back off their inquiries according to whistleblowers. “We were very upset. We expect to see influence, but the degree to which that influence existed and how high up it went, was very disturbing,” said former investigator Aurelia Fedenisn.

The State Department has rejected any cover-up claims, noting that the agency won’t “comment about specific allegations of misconduct, internal investigations or personnel matters. Not all allegations are substantiated. It goes without saying that the Department does not condone interference with investigations by any of its employees.”

Professional criminal investigators are reportedly revisting these various cases, however.

About a year ago, in a similar scandal, Secret Service agents on the presidential security detail were charged with partying with prostitutes at a Cartagena, Colombia, hotel.

The State Department has yet to come clean about what exactly happened at the US embassy compound in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012, when four Americans were killed in a terrorist attack.

Watch a CBS video about the State Department scandal:

Do you have scandal fatigue?

[State Department headquarters image credit: AgnosticPreachersKid]