David Lindorff at Counterpunch writes:

“What’s the deal with these “State Department Agents” who investigated the Indian Deputy Consul General’s visa application and her housekeeper’s pay arrangements, initially in India, and who then made the arrest at her home in New York? ……..

Doesn’t the US government have enough “law enforcement” and “defense” organizations already, without giving the State Department its own armed paramilitary operation? Embassies and Consulates already have Marine guards, already have CIA agents working undercover as “diplomats,” and have access to the FBI, the DEA, the ATF, the DOD, the Secret Service and who knows what other three-lettered organizations with armed personnel to investigate law-breaking and to defend diplomats. Why do they need this one too, particularly if all it can do is piss off the people of another country through gratuitously abusive treatment?””