“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.””
http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2013/08/the_press_quickly_learned_that.php
“Report: Al Qaeda conference call led to US diplomatic closures”
By THOMAS JOSCELYN & BILL ROGGIO
August 7, 2013 1:35 PM
Earlier this week, the press learned that an intercepted communication between al Qaeda honcho Ayman al Zawahiri and Nasir al Wuhayshi, who heads al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and is now al Qaeda’s overall general manager, is what caused the US government to shutter more than 20 diplomatic facilities.
Is there more to this story? Writing for the Daily Beast, Eli Lake and Josh Rogin report that the conference call included “more than 20 al Qaeda operatives.””