US in worldwide travel alert after 'al-Qaeda threat'

[redred]

The US state department has issued a global travel alert because of an unspecified al-Qaeda threat.

In a statement, the department said the potential for an attack was particularly strong in the Middle East and North Africa.

It comes shortly after the US announced nearly two dozen embassies and consulates would be shut on Sunday.

The alert expires on 31 August 2013, the department said. It recommended US citizens travelling abroad be vigilant.

"Current information suggests that al-Qaeda and affiliated organisations continue to plan terrorist attacks both in the region and beyond, and that they may focus efforts to conduct attacks in the period between now and the end of August," the statement said.

The alert warned of "the potential for terrorists to attack public transportation systems and other tourist infrastructure".

Meanwhile, the UK Foreign Office has confirmed that the British embassy in Yemen is to be closed on Sunday and Monday as "a precautionary measure".

US President Barack Obama has ordered that "all appropriate steps" be taken to protect Americans in response to a threat of an al-Qaeda attack, AFP news agency quoted a White House official as saying.

"The president is being updated on a potential threat occurring in or emanating from the Arabian Peninsula," the official added.

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, said that congressional leaders had been briefed about the alert.

"There is some understanding of the seriousness of the threat," she told reporters.

Republican lawmaker Jason Chaffetz said he understood there was "a very real worldwide threat".

Dutch Ruppersberger, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said the threat was not prompted by "the regular chit chat" gleaned from would-be militants online or elsewhere.

"The most important thing we have to do is protect American lives," he told the Associated Press news agency.

'Abundance of caution'
An unnamed senior US official told NBC the threat may be related to the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which ends next week.

In the Muslim world, Sunday is a work day. In other parts of the world US diplomatic offices are shut on Sunday.

"It is possible we may have additional days of closing as well," a senior state department official told the BBC on Thursday.

The official said the state department had "been apprised of information" leading it to take these "precautionary steps... out of an abundance of caution".

Last year on 11 September, the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked, leaving four Americans dead.

Other embassies are routinely targets of protesters.

The US diplomatic missions to be closed on Sunday are in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Algiers, Algeria; Amman, Jordan; Baghdad, Iraq; Cairo, Egypt; Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; Djibouti, Djibouti; Dhaka, Bangladesh; Doha, Qatar; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Erbil, Iraq; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Kabul, Afghanistan; Khartoum, Sudan; Kuwait City, Kuwait; Manama, Bahrain; Muscat, Oman; Nouakchott, Mauritania; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Sanaa, Yemen and Tripoli, Libya.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23554652

[RBP]

Interesting. We shall see.

[Richard Cranium]

O'Bama has to make up for covering up that fact that they knowingly let bengehzi happen.

[RBP]

O'Bama has to make up for covering up that fact that they knowingly let bengehzi happen.

Eh. That's a stretch. They covered it up and made up stories after the fact, but knowingly let it happen?

[Richard Cranium]

Plenty of advanced intel about the attack(s), the -0'- regime new it was coming and thought they could blame a small scale attack on some shitty anti muzzie film to help forward an agenda. Ambassador Stevens personally expressed concerns to the State department and asked for increased security days before the attack and was denied. 35 CIA operatives were in Benghazi on an "unrelated detail" (more on that later), they were told to stand down during the attack. Marines at the embassy, during the attacks asked for a Seal team that was an hour or so away, that request was also denied.

They fucked up by underestimating the scale of the attack, letting it happen and then stuck to a shitty lie a little too long..

[Hal-9000]

this is a ruse....the attacks will happen elsewhere

[Southern Belle]

If they know all this, why didn't they know about Benghazi? Or why the hell didn't they act on it?

[Southern Belle]

Fuckers.

[Richard Cranium]

35 CIA operatives were in Benghazi on an "unrelated detail" (more on that later),

Benghazi: Unauthorized Weapons Operation or Congressional Cover-Up?

Dozens of CIA operatives were involved in an arms smuggling operation on the ground in Benghazi, Libya during the deadly attack on the U.S. compound last September, reports CNN and the U.K. Telegraph. According to these outlets, the spy agency has gone out of its way to keep the information from the public through intimidation of CIA personnel.

Four Americans were killed, including U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens that evening in Benghazi almost one year ago.

In light of this new information, either the Congress’ “Gang of Eight” knew about the operation and misled the public about what they knew, or the Obama administration may have been conducting an unauthorized gun-running operation. Fox News reported in October of 2012 about a Libyan ship, reportedly containing weapons for Syrian Rebels that may have been tied into the attack against the consulate and the CIA annex:

Through shipping records, Fox News has confirmed that the Libyan-flagged vessel Al Entisar, which means "The Victory," was received in the Turkish port of Iskenderun -- 35 miles from the Syrian border -- on Sept. 6, just five days before Ambassador Chris Stevens, information management officer Sean Smith and former Navy Seals Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed during an extended assault by more than 100 Islamist militants.

On the night of Sept. 11, in what would become his last known public meeting, Stevens met with the Turkish Consul General Ali Sait Akin, and escorted him out of the consulate front gate one hour before the assault began at approximately 9:35 p.m. local time.

Although what was discussed at the meeting is not public, a source told Fox News that Stevens was in Benghazi to negotiate a weapons transfer, an effort to get SA-7 missiles out of the hands of Libya-based extremists. And although the negotiation said to have taken place may have had nothing to do with the attack on the consulate later that night or the Libyan mystery ship, it could explain why Stevens was travelling in such a volatile region on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

According to section 503’s Presidential Approval and Reporting of Covert Actions in the 1947 National Security Act, the President may not authorize covert CIA actions without informing the intelligence committees of Congress.

Legislation implemented in 1980 gave the president the authority to limit advance notification of especially sensitive covert actions to eight Members of Congress--the “Gang of Eight”: the chairmen and ranking minority Members of the two congressional intelligence committees, the Speaker and minority leader of the House, and Senate majority and minority leaders. These members are: House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD), Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA).

By law, such a covert weapons operation in Benghazi should have been known by all eight members. The disastrous results from the events of September 11, 2012 have not made it easy to get answers from these lawmakers regarding this point.

Many remember when Pelosi, a "Gang of Eight" member, found herself at odds with the Democratic base in 2009 and ridiculed by Republicans, when it was revealed she was actually briefed in 2002 by the Bush White House about the administration's tactic to water-board terrorism suspects during interrogations. Pelosi denied this fact previously.

Radio host Laura Ingraham asked Boehner on January 24 about Senator Rand Paul’s questioning to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He asked if the secretary was aware of U.S. involvement in the procuring of weapons that were transferred, bought or sold to Turkey out of Libya. Clinton, seemingly confused, told Paul "nobody [had] ever raised" the issue with her before.

Boehner replied to Ingraham, “I’m somewhat familiar with the chatter about this and the fact that these arms were moving towards Turkey, but most of what I know about this came from a classified source and I really can’t elaborate on it.”

Boehner has refuses to appoint a House Select Committee to investigate the Benghazi attacks and previously refused to support a joint Select Committee to do the same late last year.

Four members of the “Gang of Eight” have told Breitbart News over the past six months they knew nothing about any CIA operation in Benghazi involving the smuggling of Libyan weapons into Turkey that may have been shipped to Syrian rebels, some of whom were affiliated to al-Qaeda groups.

“I get to see all of that stuff. I have seen nothing that would allow me to conclude that the U.S. government was in any way shape or form involved in gun running in Libya. I looked at it all,” said Congressman Rogers, Chairman of the House Select Intelligence Committee to Breitbart News in June.

“If it’s there, I have not seen it. I think I would have found it. I think there were some other things that were happening and people got confused, but the United States government was not running guns (from the annex).”

Senator Chambliss, ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, when asked in February if he knew anything about the gunrunning issue Senator Paul asked Clinton about a month earlier replied to Breitbart News, “I’m not familiar with that.”

Senator Feinstein, Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told Breitbart News in March she “didn’t know what” Senator Paul was talking about in regards to his questioning of Clinton and the Secretary's knowledge about the gunrunning issue in Benghazi.

Ranking member of the House Intel Committee Rep. Ruppersberger claimed to Breitbart News in May he “didn’t know anything” about U.S. weapons smuggling or if Ambassador Stevens was involved in the operation in anyway, saying, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Ruppersberger, added, “If I was [privy to such information], I couldn’t talk to you about it. But I have heard no information about what you’re talking about, as far as what [Ambassador Chris Stevens] was there for. I haven’t had briefings on it.”

Ruppersberger also said he knew “nothing about” any U.S. operation to smuggle weapons to Syrian rebels, explaining the secretive “Gang of Eight” briefings from the White House do not go into much detail sometimes.

“I’ve heard nothing about it. When [Stevens] was there. I don’t know. We don’t get to that minutia sometimes. Gang of 8, we get the most sensitive information, that even our own committees can’t [get.]

When asked if the White House would have had to inform the eight members of such an operation in order for it to be legal Ruppersberger responded, “No. The checks and balances is they give us information--very sensitive information. The check and balance issue, they don’t have to tell us everything or we’d be sitting having Gang of Eight briefings all day long. That’s the answer. I don’t know.”

[Richard Cranium]

35 CIA operatives were in Benghazi on an "unrelated detail" (more on that later), they were told to stand down during the attack. Marines at the embassy, during the attacks asked for a Seal team that was an hour or so away, that request was also denied.

Adm. Mullen Admits Special Ops Told to 'Hold in Place' During Benghazi

On Thursday, while denying that a "stand-down order" was given to Special Forces members ready to help Americans who were under siege at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi last September, one of the heads of the Benghazi Accountability Review Board (ARB) admitted that a "hold in place" order was in fact given.


Testifying before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Admiral Mike Mullen said that the direction given to Special Operations Command Africa commander Lt. Col Gibson was to "hold in place" on the night of the attacks.

Gibson is the boss of Gregory Hicks, the former deputy chief of mission in Libya who had testified that a "stand down" order was given to Special Forces who wanted to help Americans who were under assault in Libya.

Mullen also said that U.S. aircraft were not at the ready while the attack was ongoing. He claimed there was a "physics problem" in addition to a "time and distance problem" that prevented the United States from providing immediate air cover.

[Richard Cranium]

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) blasted the chairman of an investigative panel on the Benghazi attacks for allowing its report to be leaked to Al Jazeera America before Congress even obtained copies of it.

At a Thursday House Oversight and Government Reform hearing on Benghazi, Chaffetz asked Mark Sullivan, the chairman of the Independent Panel of Best Practices, how lawmakers in Congress could have learned about the report on Al Jazeera.

The report found that the State Department knew of security problems in Benghazi and failed to do anything about it. Chaffetz said Congressmen still do not have the report while Al Jazeera America has had it for a month.

"One of my fundamental challenges and problems is the United States Congress doesn't have this report. It's been almost a month. We don't have this report," Chaffetz said. "And yet the first time it comes out is on Al Jazeera? That's where we gotta get this stuff?"

Sullivan said the State Department finally has the report, which was finished on August 13, but Al Jazeera obtained it even before the State Department. Chaffetz said that Sullivan and Todd Keil, who was Sullivan's deputy on the panel, were testifying because lawmakers found out about their panel's report on Al Jazeera.

Chaffetz insisted Sullivan needed to get to the bottom of how the leak occurred.

"I think that was really unfortunate," Sullivan said. "The State Department didn't have a chance to look at that [Al Jazeera America] report before it came out."

Chaffetz reiterated that Congress still needed copies of the report.

"For Al Jazeera to have a copy it a month almost before us is not acceptable," Chaffetz said. "We have to get a copy of this."

[Richard Cranium]

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