A draft plan to close several American embassies and consulates across a wide swath of sub-Saharan Africa has alarmed U.S. intelligence veterans with deep experience on the continent, one of whom called it “the greatest single threat to the United States and its closest allies in my lifetime.”

Terrorist hotspots in Africa (Irish Sun graphic).

“By ceding this continent to China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and global terrorist organizations, the Trump Administration risks losing inroads that have kept the U.S. intelligence community abreast and ahead of threats from these nation-states and terrorists since the National Security Act of 1947,” said Darrell Blocker, a retired former senior CIA operations official who once headed the agency’s Africa Division. “The national security implications of closing U.S. embassies and consulates on the African continent represents the greatest single threat to the United States and its closest allies in my lifetime.“

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CIA Veterans Alarmed by Rubio Plan to Close US Embassies in Africa