So let me get this straight.....
al Qaeda tested the NSA claim to be able to intercept every phone call.
they went out and bought a few dozen phones from the local 7-11 with 60 minutes on them.
They coordinated a false alarm to see what the US would do.
So now we know......we're trained rats.
If this was a "test" by al qaeda, then it was most likely not just a simple "test the NSA" thing but, more likely, a test to find out how compromised their current communications structure is - and the fact that they got such a strong result indicates that their communications structure had been fairly well compromised.
However, what al qaeda also got as a bonus is this: the current (mal)administration is so scared of another Benghazi, and so painfully aware of how inept it is, that they simply turned tail and reacted to this test by giving away the game - closing the embassies, thus telegraphing the fact that the US intercepted the communications, without getting anything back in return is giving away the game - rather than be put to the real test of having to in fact weigh the odds of this being a real warning or just a false-alarm, or to the test of actually having to defend a US embassy and its personnel.