http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/08/201384221848443789.html
Convenient timing for the NSA to get some good publicity
Convenient timing for the NSA to get some good publicity
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U.S. extends embassy closures after intercepted al Qaeda message...:snoop:
- Thread starter Shogun
- Start date
Hood Critic
The Power Circle
Or maybe them new age wiretaps paying off...http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/08/201384221848443789.html
Convenient timing for the NSA to get some good publicity
Or maybe them new age wiretaps paying off...
Actually this had nothing to do with the NSA wiretap.
This is a skeme that U.S. couldn't pay all it's workers for about a week so they created a fake plot.
Damn. This nikka Obama pulling that old Bush trick:
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
I watching this at 3 am exhausted like
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/07/us-kenya-airport-fire-idUSBRE97605T20130807
Ironically it happened on the same day as the Nairobi Embassy 15 years ago.
I'm sure it'll be something interesting.
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
11 August 2013 Last updated at 07:20 ET
Yemen violence: Gunmen launch deadly gas plant attack
Security remains tight in Sanaa
Continue reading the main story
Related Stories
Suspected al-Qaeda militants have killed five soldiers in an attack on a gas terminal in southern Yemen, reports say.
- US embassies to reopen after alert
- US withdraws diplomats from Lahore
- Yemen drone strikes kill 'militants'
They opened fire on a checkpoint near the Balhaf terminal in Shabwa province, killing the soldiers before fleeing.
Almost all US diplomatic missions recently closed in the region due to threats were due to reopen on Sunday.
But the US embassy in the capital, Sanaa, was to stay closed "because of ongoing concerns".
Yemen is a stronghold of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) - an al-Qaeda offshoot considered by Washington to be the most dangerous to the West.
On Thursday, at least 14 suspected al-Qaeda militants - reportedly including seven from Saudi Arabia - were killed in Yemen in three drone strikes, Yemeni officials said.
The US closed 19 diplomatic missions in the Middle East and Africa last Sunday in response to what it said was a threat of a terrorist attack, but 18 out of the 19 missions were due to reopen on Sunday.
The consulate in the Pakistani city of Lahore, which closed after a separate threat, will also not reopen yet.
The US statement said its Sanaa embassy would stay closed because of concerns about a "threat stream" emanating from AQAP, without providing further details.
Most US employees at the Sanaa embassy were ordered to leave the country on Tuesday.
The embassy closures, along with a US global travel alert, came after the US reportedly intercepted al-Qaeda messages, with reports saying they were between senior figures talking about a plot against an embassy.
On Wednesday, Yemen said it had foiled a major al-Qaeda plot against oil pipelines and ports.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23655421
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
http://www.france24.com/en/20130808-us-drone-kills-several-suspected-al-qaeda-militants-yemenDrone kills suspected al Qaeda militants in Yemen
© AFP
Six alleged al-Qaeda militants were killed in Yemen Thursday after a suspected US drone strike targeted one of the group’s former strongholds. Yemen remains on high alert after threats of a terror attack targeting Western and Yemeni interests.
By News Wires (text)
A suspected U.S. drone strike in Yemen killed six alleged al-Qaida militants Thursday in one of the group’s former strongholds in a central province, a military official said.
The strike - the sixth by a U.S. drone over the past 10 days - came as Yemen remained on high alert following threats of a terror attack targeting Western and Yemeni government interests.
So far, about 29 suspected militants have been killed by unmanned U.S. aircraft in an apparent stepped-up drone war in Yemen. While the United States acknowledges its drone program in Yemen, it does not confirm individual strikes or release information on how many have been carried out.
The Yemeni official said Thursday’s attack took place in the province of Marib, targeting a car carrying the suspected militants in the district of Wadi Ubaidah, some 175 kilometers (109 miles) east of the capital, Sanaa.
Bodies of the suspected militants were seen lying charred alongside their vehicle, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations.
Five of the killed militants were Yemenis while the sixth was believed to be of an Arab nationality, he said.
The U.S. and British embassies have evacuated embassy staff over a threatened attack that prompted Washington to temporarily close 19 diplomatic posts in the Middle East and Africa.
For their part, Yemeni authorities on Wednesday said they uncovered an al-Qaida plot to target foreign embassies and international shipping lanes in the Red Sea.
A U.S. intelligence official and a Mideast diplomat have told The Associated Press that the closures were triggered by the interception of a secret message between al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri and Nasser al-Wahishi, the leader of the Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, about plans for a major attack.
Yemeni troops have implemented drastic security measures across Sanaa, with multiple checkpoints set up and tanks and other military vehicles guarding vital institutions. The army has surrounded foreign installations, government offices and the airport with tanks and troops in the capital, as well as the strategic Bab al-Mandeb straits at the entrance to the Red Sea in the southern Arabian Peninsula.
The terror network’s Yemeni offshoot, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, has been bolstering its operations in Yemen over a decade after key Saudi operatives fled here following a major crackdown in their homeland.
The al-Qaida group overran entire towns and villages in the country in 2011, taking advantage of a security lapse during nationwide protests that eventually ousted Yemen’s longtime ruler, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Backed by the U.S. military, Yemen’s army was able to regain control of the southern region, but al-Qaida militants continue to launch deadly attacks on security forces.*
(AP)
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
US to reopen embassies after terror threat
The US is set to reopen 18 out of 19 embassies it closed due to a terrorist threat in the Middle East and Africa on Sunday, the State Department said. The embassy in Sanaa, Yemen, will remain shut.
By FRANCE 24 (video)
News Wires (text)
The United States said Friday it would reopen all of the embassies it shut this week except the one in Yemen, after re-assessing the Al-Qaeda threat.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Washington would also keep its consulate in the Pakistani city of Lahore closed, after pulling out staff on Thursday.
The United States had closed some two dozen embassies and consulates since August 4 after reported intelligence intercepts from Al-Qaeda suggested an attack was imminent.
TERRORISM - FRANCE
France, US top al Qaeda's list of Western targets
The closures affected virtually all of the Arab world and were eventually extended to include parts of sub-Saharan Africa.
Psaki said that 18 of the 19 embassies and consulates subject to the week-long closure would reopen on Sunday, a working day in most Muslim-majority countries.
"Our embassy in Sanaa, Yemen, will remain closed because of ongoing concerns about a threat stream indicating the potential for terrorist attacks emanating from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula," Psaki said.
"Our consulate in Lahore, Pakistan, which closed due to a separate credible threat to that facility, will also remain closed," she added.
Psaki said the United States would keep monitoring threats in Sanaa and Lahore as it decides when to reopen the missions.
President Barack Obama, speaking earlier Friday at a news conference, said that the United States was trying to strengthen countries' capacity to fight local branches of Al-Qaeda.
"This tightly organized and relatively centralized Al-Qaeda that attacked us on 9/11 has been broken apart," Obama said. "And it is very weak and does not have a lot of operational capacity."
But Obama pointed to dangers of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a unit of the extremist group that effectively controls parts of Yemen.
"We still have these regional organizations like AQAP that can pose a threat," he said.
Regional militants can "drive, potentially, a truck bomb into an embassy wall and can kill some people," Obama added.
"That requires us, then, to make sure that we have a strategy that is strengthening those partners so that they've got their own capacity to deal with what are potentially manageable, regional threats if these countries are a little bit stronger," he said.
Obama met last week at the White House with Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi and praised him for his cooperation with the United States against Al-Qaeda.
At least 12 suspected AQAP militants were killed in three separate drone strikes in Yemen on Thursday.
TERRORISM
Key figures in al Qaeda’s Yemeni branch
The Wall Street Journal cited an anonymous US official as saying the leader of AQAP, Nasser al-Wuhayshi, masterminded a plot that parked the global alert.
Al-Wuhayshi, one of a number of Al Qaeda suspects who broke out of a jail in Yemen in 2006, has been linked to a 2008 attack on the US embassy in Sanaa.
The Obama administration chose to close the embassies last week after facing criticism at home over the deaths of four diplomats, including ambassador Chris Stevens, in an attack by Islamist extremists on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
The threat was also reported at a time when many US lawmakers are questioning the need for pervasive government surveillance on its citizens' communications.
Obama called his news conference Friday to announce reforms to increase the transparency of intelligence operations.
http://www.france24.com/en/20130810-us-embassies-reopen-sunday-terror-threat-yemen-closed
