Terrorism Sunday.

In the past week the European portion of Rihanna's Diamonds World Tour has come to what the CIA handlers would consider an unsuccessful conclusion. In turn that makes it much less likely that the final portion of the tour will achieve its political objectives. Added to that events in Egypt are having knock on effects across the region threatening to again change the political direction of the entire Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

As a result in the US the Obama administration is once again coming under pressure over the attack on the US Embassy in Benghazi, Libya on September 11th 2012 (11/9/12). This is of course the issue used in the US to have coded discussions about all aspects of Obama's flawed foreign policy. In response the US State Department has taken the political decision to use a not particularly credible threat of a terrorist attack to close down US Embassies and issue advice against travel across the globe today (4/8/13) This particularly affects the MENA region where Sunday is the first day of the normal working week. The Obama administrations intention was to demonstrate that in return for doing everything it can to protect US diplomats overseas the US loses its ability to operate and therefore influence across the globe. Unfortunately the image of Embassies across the world being shuttered also demonstrates the negative effect of the Obama administrations foreign policy.

Following the announcement from the US the UK ordered the temporary closure of its Embassy in Sanaa, Yemen. The intention here being to put Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) into the spotlight. Based in Yemen AQAP are widely considered to be an off-shoot of the Saudi government and Egypt in particular are worried that if the Saudis wish to destabilise Egypt they will do so by exporting AQAP militants from Yemen. Therefore the UK has shifted the focus onto Yemen in an effort to find what the US knows about Saudi support for AQAP and how it feels about it. Following the UK announcement Germany and France have also ordered the temporary closure of their Embassies in Yemen in an effort to join in the conversation between the US and the UK. Finally the International Police (INTERPOL) have issued a world wide alert following prison breaks in Libya and Pakistan. This is INTERPOL trying to find out what is going on with the US terror alert.

As for Egypt itself it has enjoyed a relatively peaceful couple of days. The Muslim Brotherhood continued to hold marches in Cairo on Friday (2/8/13) with a particular focus on media city and the security forces fired tear gas in response to stone throwing. However we are talking in terms of injuries rather than fatalities. Also there have been two continuous days without attacks taking place in the Sinai. However the worry is that this is simply the calm before the storm because the military have issued a 48 hour ultimatum for the Brotherhood to abandon their protest camps in Cairo. No-one is exactly sure when that 48 hour period began so no-one is sure exactly when it will end let alone what the military will do when the time comes. However there is a fear that the military will simply charge in all guns blazing. That is because the protesters at the Brotherhood camps are armed and the camps are being used as bases to launch attacks against the military and local residents. On the battle field when faced with an encampment of armed opponents it is perfectly acceptable to simply use overwhelming force to destroy it. However in the civilian environment the security forces need to be more tolerant and more flexible. Therefore I hope before acting the military give very serious consideration to my suggestion of providing an alternative, less disruptive protest site to the Brotherhood because in a democracy their right to protest does need to be respected.

12:30 on 4/8/13.