The good news is that we picked up the intelligence. And that's what we do. That's what NSA does.
Early this week, the President instructed his National Security team to take all appropriate steps to protect the American people in light of a potential threat occurring in or emanating from the Arabian Peninsula.
Given the nature of the potential threat, throughout the week, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Lisa Monaco has held regular meetings with relevant members of the interagency to ensure the US Government is taking those appropriate steps.
This afternoon, National Security Advisor Rice chaired a meeting with the Principals Committee to further review the situation and follow-up actions.
The President has received frequent briefings over the last week on all aspects of the potential threat and our preparedness measures. After today's Principals meeting, the President was again briefed by Amb. Rice and Ms. Monaco.
Given that a number of our embassies and consulates were going to be closed in accordance with local custom and practice for the bulk of the week for the Eid celebration at the end of Ramadan, and out of an abundance of caution, we've decided to extend the closure of several embassies and consulates including a small number of additional posts.
This is not an indication of a new threat stream, merely an indication of our commitment to exercise caution and take appropriate steps to protect our employees including local employees and visitors to our facilities.
Posts in Abu Dhabi, Amman, Cairo, Riyadh, Dhahran, Jeddah, Doha, Dubai, Kuwait, Manama, Muscat, Sanaa, Tripoli, Antananarivo, Bujumbura, Djibouti, Khartoum, Kigali, and Port Louis are instructed to close for normal operations Monday, August 5 through Saturday, August 10.
The following posts that are normally open on Sunday, but were closed on Sunday, August 4, are authorized to reopen for normal operations on August 5: Dhaka, Algiers, Nouakchott, Kabul, Herat, Mazar el Sharif, Baghdad, Basrah, and Erbil.
(W)e are taking precautionary steps out of an abundance of caution to protect our people and our facilities and visitors to those overseas facilities.
(W)e continue to refine our assessment of the threat. We continue, as you can imagine, to get new information and as we do so we'll evaluate our security needs going forward.
Clearly, AQAP is the most active terrorist organization there and has been the most operationally active affiliate of al-Qaida core, but beyond that I'm not going to get into the details of the intelligence about who might be behind this threat.
I'm not going to comment further on why certain posts were selected and others weren't.
(W)e're going to continue pursuing terrorists who want to attack the United States, where they plan, operate. And I think you’ve seen during this Administration that we’ve done exactly that.
(W)e're concerned about a threat to US interests and facilities and citizens, but I don't want to go further than that.
Today I announce the end of the old system of color-coded alerts. In its place, we will implement a new system that's built on a clear and simple premise: When a threat develops that could impact you - the public - we will tell you.
We will provide whatever information we can so you know how to protect yourselves, your families, and your communities.
The Obama administration’s decision to close nearly two dozen embassies and issue a worldwide travel alert was difficult to quarrel with.
US intelligence analysts believe an attack would likely involve some type of bomb plot. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, known as AQAP, specializes in creative bomb-making techniques.
Al Qaeda and aligned organizations have a long history of attacking US. embassies and consulates.
For al Qaeda, these diplomatic compounds are attractive targets because they symbolize American power and because their locations are widely known.
There are growing concerns that an al Qaeda affiliate could use a new generation of liquid explosive, currently undetectable, in a potential attack, according to two senior US government officials briefed on the terror threat that has prompted the closing of nearly two dozen U.S. embassies.
Federal funding in the billions of dollars has allowed state and local police departments to gain access to weapons and tactics created for overseas combat theaters - and yet very little is known about exactly how many police departments have military weapons and training, how militarized the police have become, and how extensively federal money is incentivizing this trend.
