Embassy (In)Security — A Diplomatic SOS

Marc C. Ginsberg (Ambassador to Morocco, 1994-1998)

Cross-posted from Ambassador Ginsberg’s August 8, 2013 post on The Huffington Post.

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Calling Seal Team 7. al Qaeda’s too-long leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who is thought to be still hiding out in another Abbottabad in Pakistan, is up to deadly mischief by issuing three communications last week: two public and the third — a highly lethal secret correspondence directing an attack on U.S. embassies in the Middle East and South Asia.

The leaked intercept from al Qaeda’s chief to his al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) Yemeni lieutenant — Nasser al-Wuhayshi — is a grim wake-up call that al-Zawahiri is exerting a modicum of stewardship over al Qaeda’s far flung franchises despite being on the lamb longer than Bin Laden.