http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/05/us-usa-embassies-idUSBRE97413I20130805
“Al Qaeda intercept is just one piece of threat intelligence: U.S. sources”
By Tabassum Zakaria and Susan Cornwell
WASHINGTON | Mon Aug 5, 2013 7:42pm EDT
SNIPPET: “(Reuters) - Intercepted communication between al Qaeda leaders was one component of a broader pool of intelligence that prompted a threat alert closing numerous U.S. embassies in the Middle East and Africa, U.S. sources said on Monday.
The New York Times reported that the closure of the embassies was the result of intercepted electronic communications between Ayman al-Zawahri, who replaced Osama bin Laden as head of al Qaeda, and Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the head of Yemen-based affiliate al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).”
2012:
To: All
http://www.longwarjournal.org/tags/Ansar%20al%20Sharia/common/
http://www.longwarjournal.org/tags/AQAP/common/
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http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/10/state_department_ans.php
“State Department: Ansar al Sharia an alias for AQAP”
By THOMAS JOSCELYN
October 4, 2012
SNIPPET: “The US State Department announced today that it has amended its terrorist designations of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) “to include the new alias, Ansar al Sharia (AAS).”
AAS “was established to attract potential followers to sharia rule in areas under the control of AQAP,” according to the State Department. “However, AAS is simply AQAP’s effort to rebrand itself, with the aim of manipulating people to join AQAP’s terrorist cause.”
AAS “has publicly stated that the particular brand of sharia they hope to implement is the same as that espoused by the Afghan Taliban and the Islamic State of Iraq, a militant umbrella group...that includes” al Qaeda in Iraq.
AAS has “has taken responsibility for multiple attacks against Yemeni forces.” In March 2012, AAS executed a “series of attacks and armed assaults” in southern Yemen that “killed 100 people, many of whom were Yemeni soldiers.” An AAS suicide bombing in May 2012 “killed more than 100 Yemeni soldiers” during a parade.
The United Nations has also added AAS to its list of designated terrorist organizations.
The emir of AAS is Nasir al Wuhayshi, Osama bin Laden’s longtime aide-de-camp in Afghanistan. Wuhayshi is also the emir of AQAP.”
“19 US posts to remain closed this week, as lawmakers say terror threat ‘specific’ and ‘serious’”
Published August 05, 2013
FoxNews.com
SNIPPET: “Florida Republican Rep. Tom Rooney, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told Fox News that U.S. intelligence agents detected a “very specific” threat and suggested they have known about it for at least several weeks.
He was among several congressional lawmakers Sunday who said the threat was gleaned from so-called “chatter” from phone lines, computer outlets, websites and other communication outlets.
Rooney also said the information is not what intelligence committee members “see on our regular briefings.””
SNIPPET: “Rooney’s comments followed Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, telling NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the threats are “very reminiscent of what we saw pre-9/11.”
SNIPPET: “The sources said the chatter included Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri demanding that key leaders of the terror network in the Arabian Peninsula step up their activities in the wake of recent killings of top terrorists.
A Mideast diplomat said al-Zawahiri’s “pressuring” of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to launch new terrorist attacks on American and other Western targets is “unprecedented.””