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Global Post: According to the nation’s lawmakers, the United States is now facing the greatest peril since the 9/11 attacks, prompting weeklong closures of 19 diplomatic facilities in the Arabian Peninsula and Africa, evacuations in Yemen, and a worldwide travel alert.

“[This is] one of the most specific and credible threats I’ve seen, perhaps since 9/11,” House Homeland Security Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas, said Sunday on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”

The embassy lockdowns are indeed extraordinary: Former US Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill told CNN that he had never seen anything like it.

“I think this, closing all of these embassies in the Middle East to North Africa is in fact unprecedented. At least, I didn’t see this during my career,” he said.

The concern over a possible threat to American facilities and personnel is so severe that it has all but silenced criticism of the US National Security Agency’s vast secret surveillance programs, which had been gathering steam in recent weeks.

Europe has been furious with Washington ever since ex-intelligence analyst Edward Snowden made scandalous revelations about the US government’s all-encompassing data sweeps, which included spying on America’s partners during conferences in London in 2009.

More GlobalPost analysis: Manning’s other acquittal — the Garani airstrike video leak

Some members of Congress have threatened to curb the NSA’s enthusiasm. A proposed amendment to the Defense Department spending bill that would have imposed limits on surveillance was narrowly defeated last month.

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