When I was working at the U.S. Interest Section in Baghdad in 1983, we were in the old embassy building. There were NO MSG. When we secured the building at 1830, there were no humans left in the building. A large number of alarms were activated and our outer perimeter was guarded by Iraqi infantry. We were always shocked to find out when we opened up at 0730 that we hadn’t been penetrated. At the time we were under the aegis of the Belgians. The Belgian flag flew over the mission.
I’’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that the uniformed Secret
Service agents who guard embassies in DC are armed with live ammunition.
Given the status of the diplomatic facility, I can understand why. There should have been limitations on what kind of communications equipment and level of classified material could be held at the site. We have similar arrangements at small consulates.