The United States is in more danger than it has been for over a decade, with the “chatter” of terrorist threats arriving at a fever pitch unequalled since just before the attacks on the Twin Towers in 2001. As a result, the State Department has closed 19 embassies in the Middle East and Africa “out of an abundance of caution.”
Posts in Abu Dhabi, Amman, Cairo, Riyadh, Dhahran, Jeddah, Doha, Dubai, Kuwait, Manama, Muscat, Sanaa, Tripoli, Antanarivo, Bujumbura, Djibouti, Khartoum, Kigali and Port Louis have been instructed to close from Monday till Saturday, department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, as reported by Fox News.
Amidst the “chatter” that intelligence is picking up are what Florida Republican Rep. Tom Rooney, a member of the House Intelligence Committee has told Fox News called “Very specific” threats that they’ve known about for some weeks, and that include specific dates if not specific locations. This is why Obama’s administration has issued a worldwide travel alert.
“If I had plans to travel to certain places in the Middle East, I would probably go ahead and cancel them,” he said.
Amidst the differences that suggest blood is in the air are the number of prison breaks that al Qaeda has orchestrated, including breaks in Iraq, Libya, and Pakistan, which has freed some especially dangerous al Qaeda members. The month of Ramadan is almost over, and meanwhile Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has been vocally demanding new terrorist attacks on America and other Western targets in a manner “unprecedented.”
“So you have a lot of things coming together, “ said Rep. Adam Schiff, a House Intelligence Committee member, who suggest that multiple attacks on embassies may be on the agenda as well. “But all that would not be enough without having some particularly specific information,” which they do have, including some suggestions on dates and other information. In sum, America is tensed and ready for the worst.