[GRHazelton]

Thanks for the clarifications. Still, the State Department guys should have been more protective of the boundary and of a citizen, and State should have made it very clear to the Saudi Ambassador and to all embassies that that type of behavior is not tolerated. It should not have depended on a slip-up in communication.

I mean, what if you had not acted fast enough, or made a move they didn't like, and they'd popped you? It hits the news: six armed Saudi hotheads from the embassy shoot an American citizen on American soil in the nation's capital- film at eleven. I would expect our State Dept. to think about these things...oh well.

Certainly at times TR's admonition to "Speak softly, but carry a big stick" is attractive, as is gunboat diplomacy. Sadly in the scenario you posit, an American shot on US soil by "diplomatic" personnel, our laws might not have any clout. There have been many incidents of those with diplomatic immunity involved in hideous auto accidents and we couldn't prosecute. I don't know whether any deaths were involved.