WASHINGTON — Iran has stepped up its efforts to target U.S. personnel, and lethal plots against Americans have reached advanced stages in the Middle East and in certain other countries, Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton warned Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a memo dated Oct. 23.
Clayton wrote that his teams had received the information through various channels, according to The Associated Press, which obtained the memo.
“The lethal plotting efforts by the Iranians against U.S. citizens have reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries.”
The one-page memo was unclassified. It did not name any target, any country outside the Middle East, or the nature of the plots, AP reported. It also did not say whether an attack was imminent.
Clayton told Rubio the intelligence behind the warning mattered to more State Department personnel than are now cleared to receive it. The underlying intelligence had already been shared with senior department officials, he wrote, and he offered to downgrade as much of it as possible so Rubio could pass it more widely to staff who might be at risk.
The memo surfaced as the State Department cut staffing at four embassies in the region. A department official told CNN that Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Jordan “will see temporary changes to staffing levels under restricted operations.”
The embassies stay open. Staff in the four countries are not under an order to leave, AP reported, unlike Saudi Arabia, where the department this week ordered non-emergency personnel and their families to depart.
A U.S. official told CNN the Iran threats and the threat of Houthi attacks were both informing the staffing decisions. “When it comes to our staffing at embassies, we constantly evaluate new information about the security environment,” the official said.
U.S. officials have denied that the drawdowns are tied to any planned new U.S. or Israeli strikes on Iran, according to AP.
President Donald Trump, speaking at a rally in Florida on Friday, raised the prospect himself. “We may do another little Epic Fury, or they’ll agree,” he said, referring to the earlier U.S. operation in Iran by its name. “If they’re smart, they’ll just say, ‘Let’s get down to business.’”
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