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What's in the 鈥渃hatter鈥� of global Internet traffic and telecommunications that prompted the precautionary closing this Sunday of US embassies and consulates in聽?

The State Department isn鈥檛 saying anything about specific threats. But makes the origin of the threat clear: 鈥淐urrent information suggests that Al Qaeda and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks both in the region and beyond,鈥� the alert states. Al Qaeda and its affiliates 鈥渕ay focus efforts to conduct attacks in the period between now and the end of August,鈥� it adds.

Sources with access to intelligence, including certain members of Congress, say the threat was picked up in more than the usual amount of communications, or 鈥渃hatter,鈥� about possible attacks against US interests overseas.

And, especially, with the anniversary of the deadly firebombing of an unprepared US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, approaching, it鈥檚 clear the potential danger is enough to prompt extraordinary measures.

The State Department on Friday issued a list of 21 embassies and consulates, mostly in the Middle East, that are instructed to close Sunday. On Thursday, deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said the order affects 鈥渁ll US embassies and consulates that would have normally been open on Sunday.鈥� The weekend in Muslim countries is typically Friday and Saturday, with Sunday beginning the work week.

Among the countries where US diplomatic missions will close are Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. Facilities in some countries may remain closed past Sunday, Ms. Harf said.

Friday鈥檚 travel alert does not single out any particular countries where Americans should avoid travel, but it does refer to a 鈥渃ontinued potential for terrorist attacks, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, and possibly occurring in or emanating from the Arabian Peninsula.鈥�

The embassy and consulate closings affecting such a wide swath of countries were clearly extraordinary, and had 鈥淏enghazi鈥� written all over them, some foreign policy analysts say.

鈥淎fter Benghazi, the thinking is 鈥榖etter to be safe than sorry,鈥� 鈥� says Lawrence Korb, a national security analyst at Washington鈥檚 Center for American Progress and a former assistant secretary of Defense. 鈥淐learly that experience is going to color the way they do things for quite a while.鈥�

The State Department has faced withering criticism from Republicans in Congress for what they maintain was high-level disregard for threats and internal warnings of inadequate security concerning the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi in eastern Libya. A terrorist attack on the facility on Sept. 11, 2012, left four Americans dead, including US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens.

The amount of threat traffic, or 鈥渃hatter,鈥� must have been higher than usual, Dr. Korb says. That, together with Benghazi, led to measures reflecting what the State Department characterized as 鈥渁n abundance of caution.鈥�

鈥淵ou put it all together, and that leads you to [make a call like this]," Korb says. 鈥淵ou do it, and if nothing happens, then you go back to work and everybody just got an extra day off,鈥� he says. In the State Department, 鈥渢hey鈥檙e also thinking better that than being up there [at the Capitol] before Darryl Issa again,鈥� adds Korb, referring to the California Republican who chairs the House Oversight Committee, which held emotional and combative Benghazi hearings that zeroed in on State Department shortcomings.

Another House Republican, Rep. Ed Royce of California, told CNN Friday that, from what he was told, the threat is 鈥淎l Qaeda-linked" and 鈥渆manates in the Middle East and Central Asia.鈥� Representative Royce is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Korb notes that 鈥淎l Qaeda central,鈥� meaning what remains of the terrorist organization鈥檚 central leadership in Pakistan, 鈥渋s pretty well decimated.鈥� But he adds that, 鈥済iven everything that鈥檚 going on,鈥� the numerous Al Qaeda-affiliated groups scattered throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia, 鈥渕ay have decided that this was a good time to do something.鈥�

Aside from Libya, Mali, and Yemen, Al Qaeda-linked groups are also operating in Syria, where Islamist extremists fighting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad are increasingly at odds with the more moderate anti-Assad rebels the US supports.

Al Qaeda and its affiliates received a round of publicity from a string of anti-US demonstrations stretching from Egypt to Pakistan last August, and the organization may be thinking it鈥檚 time to go for a new boost, Korb says. 鈥淎ll of this may be about them wanting to show that they are still relevant.鈥澛犅犅� 聽