US embassies will remain closed until Saturday
Iran Press TV
Sun Aug 4, 2013 11:1PM GMT
US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki has announced that the country's embassies and consulates in 19 cities will remain closed until Saturday.
"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," Psaki said on Sunday.
The United States closed 21 embassies and consulates in the Middle East and North Africa on Sunday and issued a global travel alert due to a possible terror attack by al-Qaeda.
US diplomatic posts will remain closed in Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait among other countries.
On Saturday, top US officials including FBI, CIA, and National Security Agency directors, Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Gen. Martin Dempsey - the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - met to discuss the terror threat.
In an interview with Press TV, political analyst Dr. Kevin Barrett said that the recent global terror alert by the United States shows that Washington needs something to keep the so-called war on terror going.
"There is a hidden agenda of course behind it and that is to keep the so-called war on terror going and to do that they need to periodically check and see if people still believe this kind of nonsense," he said on Sunday.
"Terror alert issued by the US government is just as ridiculous as previous series of terror alerts," Barrett added.
American investigative journalist and former NSA employee, Wayne Madsen, also told Press TV on Saturday that the US government is using scare tactics on the American people in order to sell them its massive spying programs.
"What has the Obama administration done is it's taken out the al-Qaeda card once again and it's saying that there's this unspecified threat," said Madsen.
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