Edward Wong, Jonathan Swan and Julian E. Barnes
WASHINGTON – The US government has put employees on heightened alert across the Middle East and moved to reduce personnel levels at embassies and consulates because of intelligence showing Iran is in the advanced stages of planning attacks against Americans, US officials said on Oct 23.
Intelligence officials raised alarms to Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a memo on Oct 23 that warned about the dangers to State Department employees in the Middle East and other regions, the officials said.
The memo, from Jay Clayton, the director of national intelligence, said that agencies had “received intelligence that Iran has substantially increased efforts to target US personnel”.
“The lethal plotting efforts by the Iranians against US citizens have reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries,” the memo said.
The Trump administration confirmed the memo at night on Oct 23 through a US official. The move demonstrated the seriousness with which the US government is taking the threat, officials said. Axios earlier reported on the memo.
US agencies assess that the threat against Americans in the Middle East and several other countries is at the highest level since the start of the war in February, US officials said.
President Donald Trump and top aides have received regular briefings on the rising threats, which go beyond the Middle East, one official said.
Analysts have been examining the intelligence on the threats to US officials, including ambassadors, in the past three weeks. Some material indicates Iran may have operatives in the United States, the official said.
The Iranian plans also include potential targets in Europe, US officials said.
But another official cautioned that Iran’s ability to carry out attacks in the United States and other territories overseas is limited, and its ambitions to strike are greater than its capability to do so.
The White House did not reply to a request for comment. Clayton’s office and the CIA declined to comment.
The State Department said through a US official that “when it comes to our staffing at embassies, we constantly evaluate new information about the security environment”.
The official said that the threat of attacks by Houthi forces in Yemen and of “Iranian terror plots targeting US officials” were informing State Department decisions on staffing adjustments for embassies.
The missions were already at reduced levels under what the department calls “restricted operating status”, often invoked in conflict zones, the official said.
Clayton said in his memo to Rubio on Oct 23 that he was seeking to downgrade the classification around some intelligence so that more US government employees could be informed about what the memo’s subject line called the “lethal plotting against Americans in the Middle East and certain other countries”.
On Oct 21, the State Department ordered the departure of non-essential employees and their families from Saudi Arabia, Tommy Pigott, a department spokesperson, said in a statement.
The agency has also been quietly moving personnel in and out of many of the other diplomatic missions in the region.
It has designated almost all US missions in the Middle East as being on “restricted operating status”, which gives the department more leeway to adjust staffing levels without putting out notifications.
The drawdown of diplomats and other US government employees at the missions is a direct result of the recent intelligence about Iranian attack plans, U.S. officials said. NYTIMES
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.