When an embassy is put on high alert, as the U.S. government has done in preparation for any backlash from the CIA torture report, the embassy is "almost nonfunctional," says Ray Flynn, former Ambassador to the Holy See.
"You really almost have to close down all personnel coming in and out, transacting any kind of business, passports, and economic business and so forth," Flynn told J.D. Hayworth and Miranda Khan on "America's Forum" on
Newsmax TV Wednesday.
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"It's almost nonfunctional in many respects and you have to be suspect of everybody who comes into the embassy and has business with the embassy," he explained.
"The commercial section, military section, diplomatic section — you have to be deeply concerned about that. You really can't trust anybody," he contends.
"The only thing you can do is [secure] your own employees," which Flynn says he would do by shutting down all "diplomatic functions" of the embassy.
The United States placed heightened security on its embassies and bases around the world in preparation for the release of the report from Senate Democrats that U.S. interrogation tactics used by the CIA are more brutal than previously thought.
"I'd be deeply concerned if I was still running an embassy in Italy as I did in terms of this revelation," Flynn told Newsmax.
"It really puts a lot of the people — American employees, military personnel — on high risk," he explained.
"Just think what's happening in the Middle East now, the high tension," he said.
It's important to remember that "not only the employees but their families" live in the countries where they work.
"Their kids go to school there in Egypt and in the Middle East and all across the world," he added.
"I'd be deeply concerned about that."
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