U.S. intelligence officials are dealing with the most credible terrorist threat in years as 19 diplomatic posts in the Middle East and Africa remain closed through this upcoming Saturday.
CBS News reports that a large-scale attack may be imminent as al-Qaeda terrorists in the Arabian Peninsula already have their orders and could be in place for execution of the alleged plot.
Juan Zarate, a CBS News security analyst, says this recent plot is similar to one from 2010 in which several European sites were targeted.
“People were worried about Mumbai-style attacks coming from the al-Qaeda core,” Zarate said, adding, “It never materialized but officials were worried that they actually had operatives in place. And, that’s a great concern here.”
The State Department said 19 diplomatic posts will remain closed through Saturday “out of an abundance of caution.” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the decision to keep the embassies and consulates closed is “not an indication of a new threat.”
The closings are an indication of a threat that the campaign that Psaki worked for before taking the job at the State Department said was “on the run” and “decimated,” is neither. Were Psaki and her bosses lying then, or are they lying now?
In recent days, U.S. officials have said they have received significant and detailed intelligence suggesting a possible attack, with some clues pointing to the al-Qaeda terror network. The State Department said the potential for terrorism was particularly acute in the Middle East and North Africa, with a possible attack occurring on or coming from the Arabian Peninsula.
When has this not been true? That paragraph could have been published any time since al Qaeda was founded and been true.
Given how the State Department has handled Benghazi, before and after the attack, and how President Obama has sought to distract from his flailing poll numbers and the growing IRS and Benghazi scandals, it’s reasonable to ask: Are we looking at a real threat right now or are we looking at a political operation being run by the Obama administration?
I’m not saying that there’s no terrorism threat. There demonstrably is one, and it has risen as about 750 terrorist operatives have been broken out of jails in Iraq and Pakistan over the past couple of weeks. Those jailbreaks swell the terrorists’ ranks and demonstrate an ability to conduct large, sophisticated operations in multiple countries across short time frames. At the same time, yes there is a terrorist threat, yet the Obama administration has supported the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and is considering supporting the al Qaeda-led rebellion in Syria (if it hasn’t done so already).
It’s all just…odd.
And the superpower’s cowering at the threat is likely to embolden the terrorists further. Closing our embassies tells the world that we cannot protect ourselves. If we cannot protect ourselves, who can we protect?
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