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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 over terror-related concerns, State Department officials said. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf did not say how long the international installations would stay closed -- only that the decision was taken “out of an abundance of caution and care for our employees and others who may be visiting.” Officials would not describe the nature of the threat. Sunday is a normal workday in many Arab and Middle Eastern countries, meaning that is where...

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — An American diplomat who police say was speeding crossed the center line in his SUV and rammed into a full mini-bus, killing a father of three whose widow is six months pregnant, officials said Friday. U.S. Embassy officials in Nairobi rushed the American and his family out of Kenya the next day, leaving the crash victims with no financial assistance to pay for a funeral and for hospital bills for the eight or so others who were seriously injured.

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 night of the Benghazi attack last September 11, Diplomatic Security agent David Ubben waited for 20 hours on the roof of the CIA Annex until help finally arrived. He was up there with former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, who were killed by mortar rounds. Ubben’s right leg was shredded.

BREAKING: US Benghazi Hero Waited 20 Hours For Help With a Shredded Leg – While Obama Campaigned in Las Vegas Diplomatic security agent David Ubben, like former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, ran into the Special Mission Compound (SMC) to help save US officials under siege in Benghazi. Ubben was struck by a mortar round that killed Woods and Doherty. His leg was shredded. Ubben was forced to wait twenty hours before a plane was sent to pick him up. While Ubben was waiting for help with a shredded leg Barack Obama was campaigning in Las Vegas.

A man was arrested on Wednesday after crashing his vehicle into the gates of the U.S. embassy in Australia's capital of Canberra, police said.

July 1, 2013 US Embassy to Remain Closed Tuesday; Obama Says Protecting US Missions Top Priority by Patrick Goodenough (CNSNews.com) – As Egypt’s turmoil continued overnight the U.S. Embassy in Cairo said it will remain closed for a third consecutive day on Tuesday, and President Obama said that ensuring U.S. diplomatic facilities there are protected is his “number-one priority.”Demonstrators who are calling for President Mohammed Morsi to step down by Tuesday celebrated after the military leadership threatened to intervene if Egyptian politicians did not “meet the people's demands” in 48 hours. The statement was viewed by many as an ultimatum...

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...

To mark the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO), the U.S. Embassy in Tallinn on May 17 will display the rainbow flag on the Embassy building at Kentmanni 20, Tallinn. IDAHO is an annual event celebrated internationally to counter homophobia and raise awareness of the human rights discrimination faced by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) individuals. “Flying the flag,” Ambassador Levine said, “is a simple statement of our support for the LGBT community and its struggle for equal rights.” Noting the substantial progress being made, Ambassador Levine added that much of the world has come to understand that...

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...

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.

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - Blow-by-Blow: How Obama & Hillary Left Americans to DiePosted By Arnold Ahlert On May 9, 2013 @ 12:55 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 7 Comments Wednesday on Capitol Hill, three impeccable witnesses offered the clearest evidence to date that the Obama administration’s response to Benghazi before, during and after the terrorist attack that claimed the lives of Ambassador Christopher Stevens, State Department employee Sean Smith, and former Navy SEALs Glen A. Doherty and Tyrone S. Woods, was a deadly combination of ineptitude, political calculations, and outright lying. Mark Thompson, acting deputy assistant Secretary of State for counterterrorism; Greg...

New evidence reveals the Obama administration’s version of the events that took place in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 was based on a tissue of lies. The Weekly Standard’s Steven Hayes has obtained a timeline and a series of emails revealing the self-serving efforts made by administration officials, who heavily edited CIA talking points about the attack that cost four Americans, including ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, their lives. Also revealed is who made the changes and why they made them. The revelations are part of a report published by the five Republican Committee chairmen that has been largely dismissed...

October 12 marks the 12th anniversary of the bombing of the USS Cole. The grim milestone comes as President Obama faces mounting questions about his administration's dereliction of duty during the murderous attack on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya. And it comes just a day after resurgent al-Qaida thugs pulled off the drive-by assassination of a top Yemeni security official who worked at the U.S. embassy in Sanaa. These are not "bumps in the road." These are gravesites on the blood-spattered path to surrender. Seventeen U.S. sailors died in the brutal suicide attack on the guided Navy missile destroyer as...

A young diplomat is among the dead after a Taliban suicide car bombing branded "despicable" by US Secretary of State John Kerry. Taliban militants have killed six Americans, including a young female diplomat, in the deadliest day in Afghanistan for the US in eight months. Three members of the military, two US civilians and an Afghan doctor died after being hit by an explosion while travelling to donate books to a school in the south. In a statement, Secretary of State John Kerry paid tribute to Anne Smedinghoff, a 25-year-old foreign service officer with the US State Department, who was...

As I reported yesterday, Christopher Stevens was lured to Benghazi by a foreign operative who hoped to leverage some sort of gain in exchange for proffered bait. I have this from trusted sources who cannot speak on the record because they are connected to U.S. intelligence. Who was the operative, and what did he offer? According to my sources, he was a popular Turkish middleman who was known in Benghazi for being able to broker goods or situations of all types. "He was a power player, very charismatic," said one intelligence source. "He was a procurer of everything. Whatever you...

Looking ahead to a reception scheduled for Monday evening in Rome that will feature American Cardinals, Vice President Joe Biden quipped that his attendance at the event is mandatory if he wishes to retain his soul. According to the vice president's office, Biden will attend the reception at Villa Aurelia in Rome along with the Presidential Delegation to the Inaugural Mass of Pope Francis, U.S. Cardinals, U.S. Members of Congress, and officials from U.S Embassy Rome, the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See and the U.S. Mission to the United Nations Agencies in Rome. Speaking with Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic...

As dozens of riot police fired volleys of tear gas towards crowds of angry youths on Bourghiba Avenue this week, the scene was disturbingly reminiscent of what happened on this very avenue two years ago. Even the chanting was the same: "We want the downfall of the regime!" The target of the crowd's anger may be a different government, but many here feel their efforts in 2011, when they succeeded in removing Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, may have been for nought. Many outsiders, myself included, always believed the Tunisian "Jasmine" uprising had the best chance of succeeding, of building a...