Should The U.S. Speak Up, Or Keep Mum, On Terror Threats?
Most every time the U.S. government gets wind of a potential terror attack, it faces a tough choice. It can quietly pursue the suspected plotters or it can go public in the belief that public awareness can discourage or thwart the attack.
In the current episode, the Obama administration has gone public in a big way, announcing the threat, temporarily shutting more than 20 U.S. embassies and diplomatic posts from Rwanda to Bangladesh, and evacuating many embassy workers in Yemen, the country described as the main source of the threat.
"One thing I've tried to do as president is not overreact, but make sure that as much as possible the American people understand that there are genuine risks out there," President Obama told Jay Leno on The Tonight Show on Tuesday evening.
Reasons To Go Public
By announcing the threat, the U.S. could potentially buy time and perhaps force al-Qaida to delay or cancel a planned attack because it will now suspect that an operation is much more likely to be foiled.
"You usually want to keep things quiet to protect your intelligence sources, and your chances of disrupting an attack are better if the attackers don't know you're looking for it," says Daniel Byman, a professor of security studies at Georgetown University. "But if your information is vague, you might be better going public and letting everyone know that you know something."
Based on what the government has said so far, the U.S. seems to believe something is in the works, but has not been able to uncover the details, according to Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen expert who eaches at Princeton Univeristy.
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