Diplomatic Security Behind the Scenes
More than 150 foreign leaders were in New York City this week for the opening of U.N. General Assembly. CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian got an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at a little-known, highly-skilled division within the State Department whose job it is to protect the Secretary of State and visiting dignitaries, as well as more than 200 U.S. embassies and consulates around the world.
Moments before dawn Monday morning, a 14-car motorcade roared through Manhattan with shift leader John Koretke quarterbacking every move. The principal is inside a bubble protected by very special agents from Diplomatic Security.
Today's final destination - a hotel near the United Nations. The Diplomatic Security (DS) Agent in Charge, Chad Scheatzle, is shadowing the subject as he emerges from an armor-plated limousine. It is Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, a controversial leader with no shortage of enemies - and at least two assassination attempts already on his life.
"We are constantly playing a mental chess game," Scheatzle said. "You have to be two, three, four, sometimes five steps ahead of where you actually are."
"We're looking for things that don't belong, what's unusual, what shouldn't be there," said Koretke.
Three days inside a DS detail is like a spy novel come to life - a geo-political thrill ride set in a city already on edge. Controlled chaos, snaking through the streets, two dozen agents on high-alert as one president goes to a private meeting with two others, attends receptions, and speaks at the United Nations.
The Abbas security detail is undoubtedly high profile, but it is just one of 43 such details protecting foreign dignitaries around New York this week.
"This is the Super Bowl of protective services," said Director Pat Donovan.
Donovan allowed CBS News an exclusive look inside this Command Center in a midtown Manhattan hotel where the movements of nearly one-third of his 1,700 agents worldwide were being orchestrated.
"We have over 500 agents in New York," Donovan said.
Any assassination attempt on Abbas would come up against DS agents like Justin Rowan, carrying enough weaponry to fight a war. Rowan wears body armor and carries an M-4.
Scheatzle is the last line of defense - willing to take a bullet if necessary for a foreign leader.
"Our job is protecting human life," Scheatzle said. "We're here to protect him, period. And we have to do what we have to do."