Worldwide Alert; Sources: Al Qaeda in Yemen Planning Attack
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington, and this is a CNN SITUATION ROOM special report, "Worldwide Alert." The breaking news this hour, we have new information about why the United States is closing embassies and consulates and warning all American travelers around the world to beware of a possible terror attack. An al Qaeda plot may be in the final stages, U.S. officials say. Our national security insiders will assess the Obama team's response and put this potential threat in perspective. We're also taking a closer look at al Qaeda's strength right now and why terrorists may believe the timing is right to strike. The breaking news right now, U.S. citizens worldwide, they are under a travel alert for potential terror attacks. The State Department here in Washington is warning that al Qaeda and its affiliates may be plotting to strike between now and the end of the month. This comes after an extraordinary move; 21 U.S. embassies and consulates have been ordered to close on Sunday as a precaution. Most of them are in the Middle East and North Africa, regions specially mentioned in this new travel alert as potential al Qaeda targets. Let's begin our special coverage this hour with our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr. Barbara, what are you learning about the seriousness of this threat?</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, a number of U.S. officials are telling CNN this is more, much more, than the usual terrorist chatter.</s>STARR (voice-over): Fresh intelligence on al Qaeda here in Yemen led the U.S. to conclude operatives were in the final stages of planning an attack against U.S. and Western targets, according to several U.S. officials, one official telling CNN -- quote -- "It all leads us to believe something could happen in the near future." The chatter among operatives belonging to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, AQAP, had gone on for weeks, but increased in the last few days. After that and being alerted also by Yemeni officials, the U.S. took the extraordinary step of shutting down embassies across the region and issuing a traveler's warning. Although a specific target is uncertain, U.S. officials are deeply worried about an attack against the U.S. Embassy in Yemen through next Tuesday. One reason? The holy days ending the Islamic month of Ramadan are approaching, a time of potential tension. President Obama Thursday praised the president of Yemen at the White House for cracking down on al Qaeda, but experts say AQAP is actually gaining strength and power across the region.</s>SETH JONES, RAND CORPORATION: There are indications from the last week or two that Ayman al-Zawahiri, the head of al Qaeda core in Pakistan, has appointed Nasir al Wuhayshi, the head of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as his overall general manager, which is unprecedented because he is living in Yemen. He is not living in Pakistan.</s>STARR: Now, facing the link between al-Zawahiri, the successor to Osama bin Laden, and the Yemenis, the U.S. may be taken a cautious but necessary approach.</s>PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: In May, there was a plot broken up against the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. In November of last year, there was a plot against the U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan. It's not just Benghazi. There's been a sort of increased threat against U.S. interests in the Middle East. This is very much Ayman al-Zawahiri's strategy.</s>STARR: Now, look, Wolf, as you would expect with the intelligence services, there are some internal disagreements over things like the credibility, the timing, the specificity of the threats, and certainly there are also questions already being raised around Washington, is some of this because of what happened in Benghazi when the U.S. didn't see the threat coming, Wolf?</s>BLITZER: Lots of questions. Let's see if we can get some answers. Barbara, thanks very much. The more evidence coming in of terror fears in Yemen is emerging, Britain, for example, now warning its citizens to leave that country, and it's closing its embassy in Sanaa, Yemen, on Sunday and Monday. CNN has also learned that security has been greatly tightened in Yemen's major cities outside of the capital of Sanaa. Let's bring in our national security analyst, Fran Townsend. She's a member of the CIA's External Advisory Committee. Also joining us, our law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes, a former assistant director of the FBI. Peter King, Fran, told me in the last hour, he's the chairman of the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence of the House Homeland Security Committee, that this was the worst kind of chatter or so, worst kind of information he's seen in some 10 years leading up to a potential plot. What do you make of this?</s>FRANCES TOWNSEND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CONTRIBUTOR: Wolf, typically, you know, you don't see this sort of reaction if it's just an increase in the volume of chatter. What we're hearing again and again and Congressman King's remarks to you suggest is that they hear information, they hear talk that relates to a plot. They just don't know where it is, right? So you may hear about an explosive or an attack getting ready to be launched and not understand where it is. And I suspect that's why you're seeing the broad reaction of the closure of embassies. They have real credibility in the source that they have gotten this information from. We don't know what that is, but they believe it is credible, and it is specific that something is going to happen and they don't know where.</s>BLITZER: The location, that's a big issue. They do think something potentially could happen in the next few days, Tom, but they don't know where. When was the last time in your experience -- and you have been in law enforcement for a long time -- that the U.S. shuts down 21 embassies and consulates and issues this month-long worldwide terror alert?</s>TOM FUENTES, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I think, Wolf, this is the first time this many facilities have been closed down, but we have had some of these type of threats based on chatter before where Americans were warned if they're traveling around the world to be cautious. I think that shall -- and I hate to be a naysayer to all when everybody is hyperventilating over the imminent threat -- but what do you do? They put this out to Americans traveling around the world. We shut 21 embassies and consulates down. What about all the Americans that are in hotels all over the world? What about all the Americans that are attending universities? What about the tourists that are still on summer vacation traveling around? What do they do? We close an embassy and it's only for one day, how do they know it only needs to be for one day? There's just so many aspects of this that I wonder about and wonder about whether the threat warnings really there's anything you can really do with it that makes sense.</s>BLITZER: Because I read, and I'm sure you have as well, the United States Department of State travel alert worldwide. That shows it right here, worldwide, and it says that terrorists may elect to use a variety of means and weapons and target both official and private interests. If there's concern though, Tom, that American citizens traveling around the world potentially could be in danger, isn't it the responsibility of the U.S. government to let them know?</s>FUENTES: You're right, it is, and I'm in that database system so I get those e-mails all the time traveling around the world saying beware, beware, beware. What I'm saying is they come out so frequently and so broadly that it really makes it hard for to do anything specific. Do you cancel your trip? Do you not take the flights you were going to take? Do you not stay in the hotel you were going to stay in? What do you do...</s>BLITZER: Let's ask, Fran. What do you do, Fran? People are watching us here in the United States and around the world. I'm sure in Europe and in Asia, a lot of tourists out there wondering what should they do?</s>TOWNSEND: Absolutely, Wolf. I myself just returned to the United States from Africa yesterday. So what all Americans traveling abroad should do is take the opportunity, get access to a computer, and register for the smart traveler enrollment program. STEP is the acronym. You can do it online. You want to let the American Embassy know that you're in the country, what your contact information is, and how long you plan to stay there. So in the event that there's an incident and the United States government is working to evacuate Americans, they know where to find you, they can get you, and they can give you assistance. And other than that, Wolf, you really have to be alert, have a communications plan among your traveling party so you can contact each other. I mean, sort of the smart things you would ordinarily do, enroll in the smart traveler program and then be alert to your surroundings mostly.</s>BLITZER: We have to wrap this part of the conversation up. But, Tom, I have spoken to Republicans and Democrats, supporters of the Obama administration, critics of the Obama administration, but in the last few hours as I have been trying to get a sense is this overblown, are we overhyping this threat, is it real, is it not real, there seems to be a consensus this is pretty specific and pretty credible.</s>FUENTES: No, I have heard that. I have heard the members of Congress and the officials from the White House putting out that warning, the State Department obviously. So I know they're putting it out. My personal question -- really, this is my personal opinion only -- is that when you put a threat out so broadly worldwide or you shut 21 embassies down, why didn't you shut 22? When you're worried about embassies in North Africa and the Middle East, al Qaeda sympathizers are all over the world, they're all over Europe, they're in the United States as evidenced by our Boston bombing on April 15, so how do you single out that if you have an exact date and somebody is going to do something big on this Sunday or shortly after this Sunday, how do you determine then how to narrow where it's going to occur so that it becomes useful information? And how long will these embassies be closed and why were they picked?</s>BLITZER: We don't know what the actual chatter, what information the U.S. picked up in some sort of way, but I assume the information they picked up would result in these 21 diplomatic outposts being shut down.</s>FUENTES: Normally there's chatter every day and a lot of chatter. Then when it's relative to an anniversary of some kind or another, it takes on greater significance. We see now whether it was the anniversary of 9/11 on its 10th anniversary or other major events, then the normal chatter becomes increased or appears to be increased because of a heightened concern over it. My concern is if the chatter is so specific and if the chatter is so strong, we should be able to go eliminate the source of that chatter and eliminate the attack plan.</s>BLITZER: And I think it's also probably related to the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is Sunday as well. We will continue to cover this. Tom, don't go too far away. Fran, don't go too far away either. Up next, we will take you to one of the U.S. embassies that is now shutting down. Its walls have been vulnerable to security breaches before.