US to reopen 18 diplomatic missions after threat
US plans to reopen 18 of 19 embassies closed because of intercepted al-Qaeda conference call revealing Yemen-orchestrated terror plot. However, consulates in Lahore, Sanaa to remain closed, US State Department said, citing 'ongoing concerns'
The US Embassy in Sanaa, Yemen, will remain closed. The US Consulate in Lahore, Pakistan, which was closed Thursday because of what officials say was a separate credible threat, also was not scheduled to reopen.
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In the statement, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki did not cite a reason for the decision to reopen the 18 missions. She cited "ongoing concerns about a threat stream indicating the potential for terrorist attacks emanating from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula," or AQAP, for keeping the embassy in Sanaa closed.
"We will continue to evaluate the threats to Sanaa and Lahore and make subsequent decisions about the reopening of those facilities based on that information," Psaki said.
The 19 outposts were closed to the public beginning last Sunday. Most American employees at the US Embassy in Yemen were ordered to leave the country on Tuesday because of threat information.
An intercepted call between al-Qaeda officials about plans for a major terror attack triggered the 19 closures. The conference call was between al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and his top operatives, a Daily Beast report said Wednesday, citing US intelligence sources.
al-Qeada head Al-Zawahiri (R). Head of Yemen branch, al-Wuhayshi (L) (Photo: MCT, Reuters)
According to the Daily Beast, the source said that more than 20 al-Qaeda operatives from across the terror group's global network were on the call, which they described as being "like a meeting of the Legion of Doom."
The State Department issued a travel warning Thursday night regarding Pakistan, saying the presence of several foreign and indigenous terrorist groups posed a potential danger to US citizens throughout the country. At the same time officials ordered nonessential government personnel to leave the US Consulate in Lahore.
In an appearance Tuesday on NBC's "The Tonight Show," Obama said the terror threat was "significant enough that we're taking every precaution."
However, closing embassies and consulates called into question Obama's assertion last spring that al-Qaeda's headquarters was "a shadow of its former self" and his administration's characterization of the terror network's leadership as "severely diminished" and "decimated."
On Friday, the president noted that he was referring to "core al-Qaida" and that "what I also said was that al-Qaeda and other extremists have metastasized into regional groups that can pose significant dangers."
"So it's entirely consistent to say that this tightly organized and relatively centralized al-Qaeda that attacked us on 9/11 has been broken apart and is very weak and does not have a lot of operational capacity, and to say we still have these regional organizations like AQAP that can pose a threat, that can drive potentially a truck bomb into an embassy wall and can kill some people," he said.
Shutting down so many US missions also raised the thorny issue of security, a political problem for the administration since the deadly assault last September on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya. The deaths of the American ambassador to Libya and three other Americans brought criticism over the lack of security and whether the administration had been forthright about the perpetrators.
The closings covered embassies and other posts stretching 4,800 miles from Tripoli, Libya, to Port Louis, Mauritius, and were not limited to Muslim or Muslim-majority nations.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
