US in worldwide travel alert on al-Qaeda threat

[Jazzy]

The US state department has said it is issuing a global travel alert because of an unspecified al-Qaeda threat.

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

The move comes shortly after the US announced the closure of embassies in the region 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-Qa'ida and affiliated organizations 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.

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

Among the US embassies affected by the closures on Sunday are Israel, Egypt, Turkey, Algeria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh.

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

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

Source

How can traveler's be vigilant? If they're going to attack, you're not going to be able to stop them.

 

[DrLeftover]

sorry for the double posting, but it is relevant.

Counterterrorism analysts said Monday that the U.S. government’s global response to a threat emanating from Yemen, home to al Qaida’s most active affiliate, was at odds with how dismissive President Barack Obama was in a speech in May, when he said that “not every collection of thugs that labels themselves as al Qaida will pose a credible threat to the United States.”

That was only one of a series of public statements by Obama and his Cabinet members that played down the capabilities of al Qaida-linked groups. For at least the past two years, the administration has sought to reassure Americans that al Qaida is “on the run,” while counterterrorism experts were warning about the semiautonomous affiliates that have wreaked havoc in North Africa, Yemen, Iraq and Syria.

“The actions the administration is taking now are deeply inconsistent with the portrait of al Qaida strength the administration has been painting,” said Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a counterterrorism specialist at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington research institute.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/08/05/198581/global-terror-alert-inconsistent.html