[The bulletin to travelers and expatriates,
issued by the State Department, came less than a day after the department
announced that it was closing nearly two dozen American diplomatic missions in the Middle East and North Africa,
including facilities in Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Britain
said Friday that it would close its embassy in Yemen on Monday and Tuesday
because of “increased security concerns.”]
By Eric Schmitt
WASHINGTON — The United States intercepted
electronic communications this week among senior operatives of Al Qaeda, in
which the terrorists discussed attacks against American interests in the Middle
East and North Africa, American officials said Friday.
The intercepts and a subsequent analysis
of them by American intelligence agencies prompted the United States to issue
an unusual global travel alert to American citizens on Friday, warning of the
potential for terrorist attacks by operatives of Al Qaeda and their associates
beginning Sunday through the end of August.
The bulletin to travelers and expatriates,
issued by the State Department, came less than a day after the department
announced that it was closing nearly two dozen American diplomatic missions in the Middle East and North Africa,
including facilities in Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Britain
said Friday that it would close its embassy in Yemen on Monday and Tuesday
because of “increased security concerns.”
It is unusual for the United States to
come across discussions among senior Qaeda operatives about operational
planning — through informants, intercepted e-mails or eavesdropping on
cellphone calls. So when the high-level intercepts were collected and analyzed
this week, senior officials at the C.I.A., State Department and White House
immediately seized on their significance. Members of Congress have been
provided classified briefings on the matter, officials said Friday.
“This was a lot more than the usual
chatter,” said one senior American official who had been briefed on the
information but would not provide details. Spokesmen for the State Department
and the C.I.A. also declined to comment on the intercepts.
The importance of the intercepts was
underscored by a speech that the Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, posted on
jihadist forums on Tuesday. In his address, Mr. Zawahri called for attacks on
American interests in response to its military actions in the Muslim world and
American drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen, according to the SITE
Intelligence Group, which monitors statements by jihadists.
Security analysts said Friday that in the
aftermath of the furor over the Obama administration’s handling of the attack
last year on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, the State Department is
now more likely to publicize threat warnings when deemed credible, both to
alert the public and to help deter any imminent attacks.
“A decision to close this many embassies
and issue a global travel warning for a month suggests the threat is real,
advanced and imminent but the intelligence is incomplete on where,” said Bruce
Riedel, a former C.I.A. case officer and a Brookings Institution scholar.
The embassy closings come toward the end
of the Ramadan holidays and the approaching first anniversary of the terror
attack Sept. 11 on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi that killed
four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.
“We are particularly concerned about the
security situation in the final days of Ramadan and into Eid,” the British
Foreign Office said in a statement, referring to the Muslim holy month that
ends Wednesday evening.
Obama administration officials publicly
declined to discuss what specific information had prompted the increased alarm
and alerts, citing a desire to protect classified sources and methods.
But intercepting electronic communications
is one the National Security Agency’s main jobs, as the documents leaked by
Edward J. Snowden, a former N.S.A. contractor, have only underscored. At the
request of intelligence officials, The New York Times withheld some details
about the intercepted communications.
Some analysts and Congressional officials
suggested Friday that emphasizing a terrorist threat now was a good way to
divert attention from the uproar over the N.S.A.’s data-collection programs,
and that if it showed the intercepts had uncovered a possible plot, even
better.
The bulletin by the State Department’s
Bureau of Consular Affairs did not advise against travel to any particular
country, but it warned Americans to be particularly mindful of their
surroundings, especially in tourist areas, and recommended that they register
their travel plans with the State Department.
“Terrorists may elect to use a variety of
means and weapons and target both official and private interests,” the bulletin
said. “U.S. citizens are reminded of the potential for terrorists to attack
public transportation systems and other tourist infrastructure. Terrorists have
targeted and attacked subway and rail systems, as well as aviation and maritime
services.”
Representative Ed Royce, a California
Republican and the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Friday
that the warning was linked to a Qaeda threat focused on the Middle East and
Central Asia.
To date, the only Qaeda affiliate that has
shown a desire and ability to attack American facilities overseas is Al Qaeda
in the Arabian Peninsula, a group based in Yemen.
The Qaeda affiliate announced in July that
its second-in-command, Saeed al-Shihri, a former Guantánamo Bay prisoner, had
died as a result of injuries sustained in an American missile strike in Yemen
last year. But Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, the group’s seminal bomb maker, remains
at large, and, according to American officials, has trained a cadre of skilled
protégés ready to take his place should he be killed.
American drones over the past week have
carried out three separate strikes in Yemen, according to Long War Journal, a
Web site that tracks drone strikes. There have been 15 American drone strikes
in Yemen this year, according to the site.
The State Department has issued similar
alerts and warnings in the past, American officials said Friday. The last time
the department issued a global travel alert was after the death of Osama bin
Laden in May 2011.
On Feb. 19 this year, the State Department
issued a “caution” notice — less severe than a “warning” or “alert” — to
Americans that “current information suggests that Al Qaeda, its affiliated
organizations and other terrorist organizations continue to plan terrorist
attacks against U.S. interests in multiple regions.”
Pentagon officials said Friday that there
had been no movements of troops or other forces in response to the embassy
closings.
After the attack in Benghazi, the
military’s Africa Command bolstered its quick-reaction forces in Djibouti and
created new Marine Corps reaction forces in Morón, Spain, and at the naval air
station in Sigonella in Italy that can respond to a crisis within a few hours.
