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Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) said that without getting to the bottom of what happened at the Benghazi consulate, the administration feels like it has to close embassies in the face of a threat “like a bunch of cowards.” “This administration’s idea that you can go give a pretty speech and apologize really well and then everybody will love you, which it has not happened. We’ve lost credibility in Muslim nations under this president,” Gohmert said this morning on Fox. “If you don’t get to the bottom of why our security was breached in Benghazi, just like we never got to...

I have to ask, think this through, what has been the reason for a series of embassies to ever close in our past history? Are we so scared of a group that was once defeated that we cower in fear like this? Or does Obama have other plans? Embassies, closed, this many, at the same time...only in time of war, folks, only in time of war

Vague terrorist threats shutting down nineteen of our embassies, Russian strongman Putin thumbing his nose at President Obama, Iran jerking our chain – the U.S. hasn’t looked this cowardly on the world stage since the Jimmy Carter administration. Here at home, too, we’ve gone back to the Carter future; unemployment is high, Keynesian economics are all the rage, our professorial president is increasingly whiny and ineffectual; all that’s missing is a cardigan sweater and that infernal violin. Our recent contre-temps with Russia is a throw-back to the weak-kneed Carter era. President Vladimir Putin has granted temporary asylum to NSA leaker...

“American intelligence agencies (issued) an unusual global travel alert to American citizens on Friday, warning of the potential for terrorist attacks by operatives of Al Qaeda and their associates beginning Sunday through the end of August.” NYT Wait a minute: I thought Osama was dead and GM was alive -- maybe we got that backwards? Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula GM in Detroit: the ash heap of history In response, Big Guy’s birthday celebration originally scheduled for August 4, his alleged day of birth, has been extended through the entire week! A global travel alert and 21 embassies...

HSBC bank has reportedly asked more than 40 diplomatic missions to close their accounts as part of a programme to reduce business risks. The Vatican's ambassadorial office in Britain, the Apostolic Nunciature, is among those said to be affected. The head of the UK's Consular Corps told the Mail on Sunday the decision has created "havoc". The Foreign Office has been in touch with HSBC, stepping in to help diplomats open other bank accounts. HSBC said embassies were subject to the same assessments as its other business customers. They need to satisfy five criteria - international connectivity, economic development, profitability,...

The terror threat prompting the U.S. government to close nearly two dozen embassies and consulates Sunday is the most specific, credible threat information in years, CBS News senior correspondent John Miller reports. Intelligence officers have reporting from a reliable source that a major plot is under way and that the team to carry it out has been selected and is in place, Miller reports.

The United States intercepted electronic communications this week among senior operatives of Al Qaeda, in which the terrorists discussed attacks against American interests in the Middle East and North Africa, American officials said Friday. The intercepts and a subsequent analysis of them by American intelligence agencies prompted the United States to issue an unusual global travel alert to American citizens on Friday, warning of the potential for terrorist attacks by operatives of Al Qaeda and their associates beginning Sunday through the end of August. The bulletin to travelers and expatriates, issued by the State Department, came less than a day...

I know this sounds hysterical to post about a seemingly tin foil conspiracy development but I am prepared to risk some credibility and get it out there so that we can say we weren't completely surprised. First, 120 embassies have been shut down. The rationale is presumably because AQ is planning an attack. Fine, go with that but that's not the real reason I am hearing from credible sources. I'll say in my own defense that I was told by another source last October, a substantial source who nevertheless did not have 100% of my trust, that Israel would attack...

U.S. embassies in a slew of Muslim countries will close on Sunday due to a credible and serious security threat. The embassies will close in response to "a specific threat against a U.S. embassy or consulate," according to a senior U.S. official, who called it a "concerted effort" to target an embassy or consulate in a Muslim country. "We just don't know which one," the official told ABC News. "There could be other targets, not just embassies," another U.S. official said. The threat is considered to be throughout the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. Some of the biggest...

The United States will temporarily shut down its embassies and consulates around the world Sunday, including those in Iraq, Afghanistan and Egypt, as a precautionary measure, the State Department said Thursday Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/08/01/us-to-shut-down-american-embassies-around-world-as-terror-threats-grow/#ixzz2amyIIbpR

Embassy Row: Gay diplomat an ‘insult’ Church leaders in culturally conservative Dominican Republic are outraged that President Obama nominated an openly homosexual activist to serve as ambassador to the Caribbean nation. Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez, the Roman Catholic archbishop of the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo, Bishop Pablo Cedano and the Rev. Cristobal Cardozo, leader of the Dominican Evangelical Fraternity, are urging President Danilo Medino to reject the nominee, Chicago lawyer James Brewster. “It’s an insult to good Dominican customs,” Father Cardozo said last week. Bishop Cedano denounced the nomination for showing “a lack of respect,” and added cryptically:...

An Israeli watchdog group has complained that Israel's embassy in Washington falsely published that Netanyahu endorsed the "two-state solution" in the Knesset earlier this month. The false statement appeared in the Embassy's June 7 email update, according to the watchdog group, Mattot Arim. In fact, Mattot Arim said, the reported event never happened. The Prime Minister had refrained from mentioning the term “2-state solution” when speaking in the Knesset, the group said. "If PM Netanyahu had spoken of the 2-state solution, all sorts of duly elected officials would not of course have been able to participate in the approval vote...

WASHINGTON — U.S. officials confirmed that two American employees of the U.S. embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, were shot outside of a nightclub early this morning. The men were part of the embassy’s defense attaché and were hospitalized after the incident.

CARACAS — Two employees of the US embassy in Venezuela were shot and wounded early Tuesday in the capital Caracas, in a murky incident that local media and a police source said took place at a strip club. "We can confirm that two members of the US embassy in Caracas were injured during an incident early this morning," State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell told reporters in Washington. "Medical staff inform us that their injuries are not life-threatening," he added, noting that they were hurt at "some sort of a social spot" but without specifying the venue or nature of their...

United States Embassy Stockholm, SwedenSecurity Message for U.S. Citizens: Update on ongoing Protests in Stockholm May 22, 2013 On Sunday, May 19, more than 100 cars were set on fire in the northern Stockholm suburb ofHusby by local rioters in protest over a police shooting. Similar incidents occurred on the nights of May 20-23, spreading into other areas near Stockholm. Swedish police have made several arrests and consider the situation contained. However, due to the potential escalation of the riots, the U.S. Embassy cautions U.S. citizens to avoid the following areas during the next several evenings: Husby, Tensta, Kista, Rinkeby,...

More glorious fruit of the Arab Spring. "3 Arrested in Plot to Bomb Egyptian Cities and Embassy," by Ben Hubbard in the New York Times, May 11 (thanks to Kenneth): CAIRO — Egyptian security forces have arrested three militants with ties to Al Qaeda who were planning terrorist attacks in Egyptian cities and against a foreign embassy, the interior minister said Saturday. A Western official said the Egyptians had privately identified the embassy as the United States Embassy in Cairo. Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim said at a news conference that the suspects had been arrested with 22 pounds of explosive...

Egypt’s Interior Ministry said on Saturday that it had detained men belonging to an al Qaeda-linked group who were planning a bomb attack on a foreign embassy in the country. Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim said Saturday that Egyptian security forces had intercepted a terrorist cell linked to al Qaeda that was on the verge of carrying out a suicide attack on a foreign embassy. “The Interior Ministry was able to direct a successful blow to a terrorist cell that was planning suicide operations,” Ibrahim said during a televised news conference. The minister did not specify which embassy was being targeted,...

The U.S. military has alerted two elite military units in Europe to be on standby if needed to respond to a deteriorating security situation in Tripoli, Fox News has learned. In recent days both the U.S. embassy and British embassy in Libya have removed non-essential staff from their embassies. A specialized Marine unit based in Moron, Spain, is in the process of being repositioned closer to Libya; and in Stuttgart, Germany, a special operations force assigned to AFRICOM has been placed on heightened alert.

The French embassy in Libya has been attacked and two guards have been injured. The attack took place in the country's capital, Tripoli. "There was an attack on the embassy. We think it was a booby-trapped car," the official told Reuters. "There was a lot of damage and there are two guards wounded." A Libyan source said the blast caused serious damage to the building.

KATHMANDU SNIPPET: The Annapurna Post vernacular daily reported on Sunday that the arrest was made on April 13. Identified as Mohsin Khosravian, the suspect is currently in police custody.

 The security officials at the Embassy speculated that the suspect was scouting the facility with a harmful intention "for he carried a tourist map of the Lazimpat area" where the Israeli mission is located. 

He had stayed in a Thamel-based hotel. After his arrest, the suspect told police that he had ventured out to find out a shop to repair his laptop.

 According to the report, the Nepal Police's Central Bureau...