Numerous US Diplomatic Posts to Remain Closed for the Week
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MAHMUD TURKIA/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — The State Department announced on Sunday that U.S. diplomatic posts in 19 cities, primarily in the Muslim world, would remain closed through Saturday due to what it called credible security threats.
A senior U.S. official tells ABC News intercepted messages from al Qaeda terror cells in Yemen indicate known terrorists are planning a major attack aimed at U.S. or Western interests. The official says the intercepted messages reveal terrorists talking about an attack that is “going to be big and strategically significant.”
It’s not known if the attack involves an embassy, an airbase, an aircraft or trains.
One U.S. official tells ABC News “the part that is alarming is the confidence they showed while communicating and the air of certainty about their plans.”
The official tells ABC News the terrorists even talked about their media plan for after the attacks take place.
Officials say al Qaeda operatives have been selected and are already in place in Yemen and possibly in additional countries as well.
One official says there are serious concerns about attacks from suicide bombers with devices surgically implanted in their bodies to evade Western security measures. As one U.S. official told ABC News, “These are guys who have developed the techniques to defeat our detection methods.”
Senior military and intelligence officials met with President Obama for hours on Saturday to discuss the latest terrorist threat.
The U.S. State Department announced last week that several American embassies and consulates would be closed on Sunday due to security concerns, and said the closures could be extended for several days if U.S. intelligence gathered more specific information.
On Saturday, the State Department issued a global travel warning to all U.S. citizens around the world, alerting them to the “continued potential for terrorist attacks.”
The decision to issue a global terror alert was based on very specific chatter from “high-level people in al Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula,” according to House and Senate Intelligence Committee members.
When asked about a possible terrorist attack during an interview Sunday on ABC’s This Week, New York Republican Congressman Peter King said, “It could basically be in Europe, it could be the United States, it could be a series of combined attacks….”
King says al Qaeda is in many ways “stronger than it was before 9/11 because it’s mutated and it’s spread and it can come at us from different directions….”
King endorsed the Obama administration’s decision to issue the worldwide travel alert, saying, “I think it’s absolutely warranted in this situation.”
There has not been a mass closing of embassies and consulates due to an intelligence threat since the first anniversary of 9/11.
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