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The State Department on Tuesday ordered most embassy personnel out of Yemen and urged all U.S. citizens currently in that country to leave over the Al Qaeda threat that triggered the shutdown of 19 American diplomatic posts this week. The U.S. Air Force already has flown State Department personnel out of the capital of Sanaa as part of the broad evacuation effort. "The U.S. Department of Defense continues to have personnel on the ground in Yemen to support the U.S. State Department and monitor the security situation," Pentagon spokesman George Little said. The rapid-fire developments on Tuesday came as two...

A statement issued Tuesday says the department has ordered the departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel from Yemen "due to the continued potential for terrorist attacks." The travel warning says U.S. citizens currently in Yemen should depart and calls the security threat level in Yemen "extremely high." A U.S. intelligence official and a Mideast diplomat told The Associated Press that the current shutdown was instigated by an intercepted secret message between al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri and his deputy in Yemen about plans for a major terror attack. Britain's Foreign Office says it has evacuated all staff from its embassy in...

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The Department of Homeland Security is beefing up its presence at airports, train stations and other travel hubs in the United States in the wake of global travel warning imposed on all U.S. citizens Local authorities are not going into specifics but the San Francisco Police Department does acknowledge receiving a bulletin by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and DHS. The SFPD says their officers are monitoring various areas of the city and will determine if additional resources are necessary. areas of the city and will determine if additional resources are necessary. They say they have...

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About one-third the U.S. diplomatic posts that were temporarily shuttered due to a "serious threat" of al Qaeda attack reopened on Monday, hours after officials extended closures at 15 others through Saturday and shut four more. Nine embassies and consulates opened their doors again, but a further 19 would be closed through Saturday “out of an abundance of caution,” the State Department said. “This is not an indication of a new threat stream, merely an indication of our commitment to exercise caution and take appropriate steps to protect our employees including local employees and visitors to our facilities,” the State...

Warnings from U.S. officials on the threat of possible terrorist strikes against Americans overseas -- and the massive closure of embassies in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia on Sunday -- may have divulged too much information, including details about the intercepted chatter and source of the information. Some intelligence officials say the disclosures may work against obtaining new information and even pose a deadly threat from militants who might kill anyone suspected of working with Western intelligence, The Washington Times reported. “There simply are not that many who would know about the attacks,” the Times quoted one...

The terror threat prompting the U.S. government to close nearly two dozen embassies and consulates Sunday is the most specific, credible threat information in years, CBS News senior correspondent John Miller reports. Intelligence officers have reporting from a reliable source that a major plot is under way and that the team to carry it out has been selected and is in place, Miller reports. The threat information has been described as the most specific and credible since the foiled plot to blow up British planes en route to the United States in 2006, Miller reports. The specificity ends there. What...

Sunday also marks the 27th day of Ramadan, known as “The Night of Power,” when the first verses of the Koran were revealed to the Prophet Mohammed, and some analysts believe that date may encourage militants to launch attacks against “infidels.” Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/aug/3/intel-community-worried-obama-administration-discl/#ixzz2axxPv400 Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

Republican Rick Santorum on Sunday blamed President Barack Obama's policies for creating the current terrorist threat that has closed more than 20 embassies around the world. "I think it's a huge deal, and I think it's really the consequence of the policies of this administration," Santorum said on NBC's "Meet the Press," pointing to last year's attack in Benghazi that killed four Americans. "We've seen really nothing other than cover-ups," said Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator and candidate for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. "What we've seen is an administration that has refused to confront radical Islam, that has embraced...

<p>Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama spent his birthday weekend away from the White House but was briefed about the terror threat that prompted embassy closings and heightened military readiness across the Middle East and North Africa.</p> <p>On Sunday morning, he remained at the Camp David presidential retreat just outside Washington, where he had flown Saturday afternoon after golfing with close friends earlier in the day. Obama turned 52 Sunday.</p>

Jake Tapper's "The Lead" reports that Al-Qaeda Arabian Peninsula “may have something big going down” and may be in "final stages” of an attack on the U.S. and other Western targets...

Federal authorities are boosting security in the United States after intelligence agencies detected a credible threat to Western interests overseas and the government began closing diplomatic posts in some Muslim countries, according to homeland security officials. The Department of Homeland Security is increasing security measures at airports, train stations and other transportation hubs, and expanding scrutiny of visitors coming into the United States, two officials told ABC News. The FBI, meanwhile, is "working sources" and taking other "logical steps" to monitor any potential threat, an FBI official said.

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...

Peter King: Plot ‘most specific I’ve seen’ By: Breanna Edwards August 2, 2013 06:07 PM EDT Chairman of the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence Rep. Peter King confirmed on Friday that “something serious is being planned,” prompting the shutdown of 21 U.S. embassies across the world. “There’s very little doubt, if any, that something serious is being planned,” the New York Republican told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on a phone call in “The Situation Room.” “I’ve been getting briefed fairly regularly over the last seven or eight years at least and also pretty heavily before then and this is the most...

The United States will temporarily shut down its embassies and consulates around the world Sunday -- including those in Iraq, Afghanistan and Egypt -- as a precautionary measure over terror-related concerns, State Department officials said. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf did not say how long the international installations would stay closed -- only that the decision was taken “out of an abundance of caution and care for our employees and others who may be visiting.” Officials would not describe the nature of the threat.

The United States will temporarily shut down its embassies and consulates around the world Sunday -- including those in Iraq, Afghanistan and Egypt -- as a precautionary measure over terror-related concerns, State Department officials said. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf did not say how long the international installations would stay closed -- only that the decision was taken “out of an abundance of caution and care for our employees and others who may be visiting.” Officials would not describe the nature of the threat. Sunday is a normal workday in many Arab and Middle Eastern countries, meaning that is where...

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — An American diplomat who police say was speeding crossed the center line in his SUV and rammed into a full mini-bus, killing a father of three whose widow is six months pregnant, officials said Friday. U.S. Embassy officials in Nairobi rushed the American and his family out of Kenya the next day, leaving the crash victims with no financial assistance to pay for a funeral and for hospital bills for the eight or so others who were seriously injured.

U.S. embassies in a slew of Muslim countries will close on Sunday due to a credible and serious security threat. The embassies will close in response to "a specific threat against a U.S. embassy or consulate," according to a senior U.S. official, who called it a "concerted effort" to target an embassy or consulate in a Muslim country. "We just don't know which one," the official told ABC News. "There could be other targets, not just embassies," another U.S. official said. The threat is considered to be throughout the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. Some of the biggest...

The night of the Benghazi attack last September 11, Diplomatic Security agent David Ubben waited for 20 hours on the roof of the CIA Annex until help finally arrived. He was up there with former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, who were killed by mortar rounds. Ubben’s right leg was shredded.