Source: al Qaeda leader urged affiliate to 'do something'
By Barbara Starr
A message from al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri to his second in command in Yemen told him to "do something," causing U.S. and Yemeni officials to fear imminent terrorist action, CNN has learned.
For weeks, U.S. and Yemeni officials watched a rising stream of intelligence about the possibility of a major terrorist attack in Yemen but grew increasingly alarmed after intercepting a message within the past several days said to be from al-Zawahiri, who is believed to be in Pakistan. The message was sent to Nasir al-Wuhayshi, the leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the terror group's Yemeni affiliate. U.S. intelligence believes al-Wuhayshi has recently been appointed the overall terror organization's No. 2 leader.
U.S. officials cautioned that there may be multiple sources of intelligence including intercepts of electronic information from phone calls, web postings, but also interrogation of couriers or other operatives.
CNN had the information over the weekend and decided not to report the details about al-Zawahiri's involvement based on U.S. government concerns about the sensitivity of the information. Now that it has been widely reported in other media, including the New York Times and McClatchy, CNN has now decided to report it as well.
The United States has heightened its security stance by issuing a worldwide travel alert and closing a number of embassies and consulates over a large area of the Middle East and Africa this week.
The White House said the substantial security steps reflect an "abundance of caution" over intelligence information that indicated final planning by al Qaeda in Yemen for possible terrorist attacks on Western targets to coincide with the end of Ramadan this week.
The intercepted message further intensified concerns already heightened by increased terrorist chatter detected by intelligence agencies, as well as a series of prison breaks that freed al Qaeda figures.
A senior official with Iraq's interior ministry told CNN on condition of not being identified that top officials of al Qaeda in Iraq, including Adnan Ismail Najim Abdullah al-Dulaimi, escaped from Abu Ghraib prison during a jailbreak there last month and remain at large.
Yemen is an area of particular concern.
Three sources said the United States has information that members of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula are in the final stages of planning for an unspecified attack.
White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Monday that U.S. anti-terrorism efforts had decimated al Qaeda's global leadership and greatly diminished its core in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. But the threat still posed "has shifted to some of these affiliates, in particular AQAP."
Over the weekend, Interpol warned that al Qaeda has been tied to the prison breaks on July 23 in Iraq, on July 26 in Libya and four days later in Pakistan.
Separately, American special forces units overseas have been on alert for the past several days for a mission to attack potential al Qaeda targets if those behind the most recent terror threats against U.S. interests can be identified, a senior Obama administration official told CNN.
The official declined to identify the units or their locations because of the sensitive nature of the information.
The units, along with several others, were put on heightened alert by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel last week.
@natlsecuritycnn on Twitter
Islam is dead.
Did Ayman al-Zawahiri really sat these things or was this made up by the C.I.A.? Either way, unfortunately, the people are dumb enough to fall for this manure from Washington!
and this makes us tremble ? come on Barry.
This is a picture of a Dead Man Walking
What al Zawahiri actually said, according to my "inner voices", was "Do something, before they skin me alive."
SOS to the NSA, CIA and FBI Elites http://www.drturi.com/sos-to-the-nsa-cia-and-fbi-elites/ Please share with the world!
nut job
What about offering the world a very specific date...SOS to the NSA, CIA and FBI Elites http://www.drturi.com/sos-to-the-nsa-cia-and-fbi-elites/ Please share with the world!
The terrorists know how to blow up your clothes!!!!
Remove your clothes now!
There is a huge difference between being a Muslim, and being a jihadist, or a terrorist. The Media spends every waking hour of the day shaping the minds of the nation. It's teaching our youth to fear all Muslims, and to not seperate between the Muslim people, and the extremist. I do not condone what extremists do, but for you all to group all of Muslims into the same category as extremists, and terrorists is a little bit far fetched, as well as extremely wrong. Until you learn to differentiate the small percentage of people that are responsible for the horrendous acts, you do not deserve to speak your mind. All of you idiots who are saying "Destroy all of these nations that harbor blah blah blah" think about if other nations didn't like white supremist Americans, would it be correct for them to think they need to neutralize our entire nation? I didn't think so...
just pay your taxes
I wonder if NSA ever redirect the spy satelite over America's Top Models house.
(TV show joke, cut paste the last 9 words and google if you don't know)
I don't think we really need to google ANYTHING to understand your lame joke.
Why can't we find this slow fat old guy?
I would imagine the conversation was something like this:
"Do something!!"
"We're trying!! But everytime we send someone outside to "do something" we hear a loud "boom" and they don't come back! Why don't you come here and 'do something'?!"
"Hello? Hello?" (crinkles paper by the phone) "I think I'm losing you! I will call you back!"
THIS.
How many times are they going to bring this guy back from the dead?
As many times as necessary to keep the status quo!
It is time to vaporize the people of Yemen, and Pakistan..
Would you think it all right if Yemenis said the same thing about Americans? Of course not. Might does not make it right to kill innocent people. I have no problem killing people who are proven to be plotting the deaths of others, but let's at least discriminate between the evil and the innocent. lest we are evil ourselves.
Does the suicide killers or the terrorists distinguish between the innocent and those that are their true enemies?
If you had graduated from the 5th grade you would know how stupid that sounds
I like "Just Do It" better...
the minders are at it on this site. I posted a respectable comment but it does not gel with CNN brass hence deleted.
Would any of these recent scare tactics have anything to do with Snowden – attempts to point the finger at him???? Prove Snowden wrong with more attempts to make Obama and the NSA look good?
"Do Something" Sounds like my wife on a Saturday morning after a pot of coffee!
Zawahiri passes gas, we jump!
How do those missiles taste, boys?
Judging by all these ignorant anti-Zawahiri comments here, it appears that the Tea Partiers are out in force on this web page! These people here seem to wear their ignorance on their sleeve!
Are Libs fans of Zawahiri??
Eff you.
Thank you AnAmerican, for your Tea Party salute. Now that's what I call "showing your true colors"!
Goodbye, Maybe you can still get a plane ticket to Yemen! Most people.. I say Most "US People" here ...Are anti-Zawahiri..and anti-terrorist. You obviously have a different belief ?