GAO’s Watchdogs Put Tight Leash on Ambassadors

WASHINGTON —  Government investigators checking the security network guarding U.S. ambassadors around the world last year found a loophole in Venezuela, where they said agents assigned to protect Ambassador George W. Landau complained of “deteriorating morale”--caused, primarily, by the fact that they had to walk the diplomat’s poodle.

Not so, replied Landau, now retired and an executive of an inter-American foundation in New York. In his version, as told to the State Department, he walked the dog; the agents merely went along.

And that’s the way it had better be if you are named a U.S. ambassador, have a dog and face a dicey local security situation. Do not, under any circumstances, ask your highly trained body guard to do it--or you may be reported to Washington, as Landau was.

The General Accounting Office, a congressional watchdog that roams the world sniffing out government problems, discovered the sagging morale in Caracas. When the GAO report became public this week, Assistant Secretary of State Robert E. Lamb immediately enunciated what has become known informally as the “Poodle Policy.”

Lamb said he will definitely curb ambassadors who hand the leash to the agent. “But the agent must go along if the ambassador leaves the embassy grounds with the dog,” he said.