It’s so specific, it could happen yesterday. Or next week. Since the closure of 22 embassies has been extended through mid-August. Aside from the specific 22 embassies closed in the specific countries of Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Yemen, Israel, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the threat is so specific, well, let them tell it:
“This threat was so specific as to how enormous it was going to be and also certain dates were given,” Representative Peter King, a New York Republican who serves on both the House Intelligence and Homeland Security committees, said on “This Week.” While an attempted attack is most likely to happen in the Middle East, “It could be in Europe, it could be in the United States.”
You’re supposed to report your international travel to the State Department. Good luck with that, millions of Americans currently overseas. You should definitely report your travel plans to the nearest consulate. I’m sure they’re equipped to handle that. Especially the ones that are closed. Operators are standing by.
The threat is specific enough that you should be careful of taking planes, trains, or boats. One presumes taxis and tuk-tuks are still as safe as they ever were.
And this from the guy who was claiming that Snowden harmed US security by revealing methods and alerting AQ that they were being monitored (because, well, all of us are. Being monitored.):
The latest alert and embassy closures may be an effort to disrupt al-Qaeda operations, according to Michael Hayden, who served as CIA director under the George W. Bush administration.
The announcements may be designed to put al-Qaeda “on the back foot, to let them know that we’re alert and we’re on to at least a portion of this plot line,” Hayden said yesterday on “Fox News Sunday.”
And this doesn’t? Something something sauce something gander.
A nickel says this isn’t about a specific threat. It’s about making the NSA look good. It’s about setting an orange alert level now that we don’t have alerts levels anymore. It’s about making sure you’re aware that your government which is spying on you illegally is looking out for your best interests. Much as my sister was when she turned my stack of Playboys over to my parents. “It’s for your own good,” she said as seriously as a fourteen year old girl can.
Well, not so much as it turned out.
And of course this has absolutely nothing to do with Snowden getting asylum in Russia, and Manning being sentenced to life, and getting those stories off the Sunday news hours, and white-knighting the NSA instead.