Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday the terrorism threat that led the Obama administration to close most of its embassies in the Middle East is more specific than other recent threats and was directed broadly at Western interests, not just those of the U.S.
Comments from Gen. Dempsey and a range of lawmakers Sunday emphasized both U.S. concern about the threat and the lack of precise details unearthed by intelligence services.
"There is a significant threat stream, and we are reacting to it," Mr. Dempsey said in an interview with ABC's show "This Week." The threat is coming from an "al Qaeda branch," he said.
The exact target of the planned terrorist attack was unspecified but the intent was clear, Mr. Dempsey said. "The intent is to attack Western, not just U.S. interests."
The threat also prompted the Obama administration to issue a world-wide travel alert for the entire month of August. Senior U.S. officials have said they are particularly focused on Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, saying the affiliate was plotting attacks that Washington feared could be executed in the Middle East, Africa or beyond.
"This is probably one of the most specific and credible threats I've seen perhaps since 9/11," said House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R., Texas) on CBS's "Face the Nation" show on Sunday. Mr. McCaul said the terror threat was notable because of the link to the al Qaeda faction in the Arabian Peninsula. "Their expertise is chemical explosives hitting the aviation sector," he said.
Rep. Peter King (R., N.Y), a member of the House intelligence committee, said, also on "This Week," that the threat was very specific "as to how enormous it would be" as well as to when it would happen, but "it didn't specify where it's going to be. And, you know, the assumption is that it's probably most likely to happen in the Middle East at or about one of the embassies, but there's no guarantee of that at all. It could basically be in Europe; it could be in the United States; it could be a series of combined attacks," he said.
Messrs. McCaul and King were two of several Republican lawmakers on Sunday to praise the Obama administration's pre-emptive steps to alert the public and to protect personnel abroad. "The administration's call to close these embassies was actually a very smart call, particularly in light of what happened in Benghazi," Mr. NcCaul said, referring to the fatal 2012 attack on a U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya.
Several lawmakers used the threat to buttress their arguments about the importance of the intelligence-gathering efforts of the National Security Agency. The NSA has been mired in controversy since former spy contractor Edward Snowden leaked scores of classified documents to media outlets describing the inner workings of U.S. spying and eavesdropping operations.
"The good news is that we picked up intelligence," said Maryland Rep. C.A. "Dutch" Ruppersberger, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee. "That's what NSA does. NSA's sole purpose is to get information intelligence to protect Americans from attack," he said on "This Week."
"The NSA program is proving its worth yet again," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) said, speaking on CNN's "State of the Union." He did not specify a particular NSA program. He said to his colleagues who are critical of the NSA's intelligence gathering, "if you want to gut it you're making us much less safe."
Other lawmakers drew a distinction between NSA programs directed at overseas intelligence gathering as opposed to programs that collect information on U.S. soil. Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif), a member of the House Intelligence Committee and a critic of the NSA's collection of data on Americans' phone calls, said on CNN that the NSA's role in helping uncover the latest terror threat doesn't change his mind about the program. He said he's seen no indication the program contributed to the information about this particular plot.
