Rep. McCaul: 'Disturbing Trend' of Shutting Down Embassy Services
Wednesday, 18 Mar 2015 05:02 PM
By Greg Richter
Rep. Mike McCaul said the State Department made the right call shutting down consular services at U.S. diplomatic facilities inside Saudi Arabia earlier this week, but he called the trend of being required to take such actions "disturbing."
Appearing Wednesday on CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper," the Texas Republican who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee said the actions in Saudi Arabia, combined with a temporary shutdown of the U.S. Embassy in Djibouti and the recent shutdown of the U.S. Embassy in Yemen, have been caused by "threat streams" against American contractors and embassy employees.
"They are targeting Western interests, shopping malls, hotels, and they also are targeting American energy company contractors over there, in addition to the embassy employees themselves," McCaul said. "I think that the State Department made the cautious correct decision to err on the side of caution and temporarily shut them down."
Still, he said, "That's a very disturbing trend and a real growing threat of ISIS [Islamic State] and al-Qaida against Western interests, including our embassies."
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