Story highlights
Bergen, Cahall: U.S. issued global travel alert, 21 embassies, consulates close Aug. 4
That day is Ramadan 'Night of Power,' also seen by al Qaeda as good night for martyrdom
They say night of power has brought earlier terror attacks; embassies a favored target
Writers: Target may be Egypt, where earlier attack aimed; jailbreaks may also be factor
Editor’s Note: Peter Bergen is CNN’s national security analyst, a director at the New America Foundation and the author of “Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for bin Laden – From 9/11 to Abbottabad.” Bailey Cahall is a research associate at the New America Foundation.
On Friday the U.S. State Department issued a worldwide travel alert because of an unspecified al Qaeda threat. The location of that threat, the department said in a bulletin, is “particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, and possibly occurring in or emanating from the Arabian Peninsula.” As a result, an unprecedented 22 embassies and consulates in 17 countries in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia closed for a day on Sunday.
Sunday is also the 27th day of Ramadan and a particularly holy day for the world’s Muslims as it is the “Night of Power,” when the first verses of the Koran were revealed to the Prophet Mohammed.
It is also seen by al Qaeda’s would-be martyrs as a particularly auspicious day to die.
On the Night of Power in 2000, which that year fell on January 3, al Qaeda militants attempted to launch a suicide attack against the American warship USS The Sullivans off the coast of Yemen with a bomb-filled boat.
That attack failed, but the same group of militants then attacked the USS Cole 10 months later, again using the tactic of a bomb-laden boat, which exploded, killing 17 American sailors.
