A rare look inside Sec. Clinton's security bubble
NEW YORK - America's first 23 secretaries of state never set foot outside the country in the 71 years they served as top diplomat.
How times have changed. In less than three years, Hillary Rodham Clinton has traveled more than 600,000 miles to 87 countries - visiting some very dangerous places.
CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod shows you the security involved in protecting the secretary of state.
With New York City on high alert for the U.N. General Assembly meeting, the most highly protected woman in town is Secretary Clinton. For the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, the week has been a carefully coordinated dance one year in the planning - involving dogs, machine guns, armored vehicles and 80 agents.
Bill Embry directs the secretary's motorcade, and took CBS News inside the security bubble.
"What kinds of things are you hearing in your ear?" Axelrod asked.
"Listening to any cars that might be approaching us from every angle, vehicles, pedestrians, bicycles," Embry said. "Anything strange going down the road."
Embry said he doesn't feel any more comfortable operating in midtown Manhattan than he does in some third-world country. "No matter where I'm at, I'm always worried about the safety and security of Secretary Clinton."
The U.N. General Assembly meeting brings more than 40 high level diplomats under the watchful eye of the State Department.
Kurt Olssen is in charge of Clinton's detail, protecting her from the threat of terrorists. "I go wherever she goes," Olssen said. "We're fairly certain that she's high in their minds as a potential target and that's the mindset we carry as we go."
In her first two years, Clinton traveled more than any secretary of state in history, including stops in Madrid, India, and Abu Dhabi.
Has Olssen ever woken up and not know what country he was in?
"It happens all the time," he said.
Olssen's major concern this week was getting stuck in traffic. "We do not like it," Olssen said. "Perpetual motion, until we get to the next location. That's what we want."
Thursday morning there was another trip to the U.N. for the multi-tasking Clinton, who's on her BlackBerry as she heads into a meeting on nuclear security. Fifteen minutes later she's back in her car and off.
In a week of big headlines, her security agents will have done their jobs if they've stayed out of the news.
