U.S. to Reopen Most of Its Embassies on Sunday

Eighteen of the U.S. embassies recently closed due to alarming Al-Qaeda threats will reopen Sunday, the White House said in a statement late Friday.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki announced Friday evening that 18 of the 19 diplomatic outlets will be going back to business as usual on Sunday, but that the embassy in Yemeni capital Sanaa will stay closed due to "ongoing concerns about a threat stream."

A consulate in the Pakistani city of Lahore that was closed due to a separate threat will also stay closed for the time being.

"We will continue to evaluate the threats to Sanaa and Lahore and make subsequent decisions about the reopening of those facilities based on that information," she said. "We will also continue to evaluate information about these and all of our posts and to take appropriate steps to best protect the safety of our personnel, American citizens traveling overseas and visitors to our facilities."

The embassies were shut down August 4th, after the State Department intercepted intelligence that suggested an Al-Qaeda attack was imminent. Whether their reopening means the threat has passed remains unclear, however, as Psaki didn't cite a specific reason for the decision.

Sunday marks the end of Eid al-Fitr or the Islamic holiday of Ramadan — and as Former Republican Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee put it earlier this week: "We as a government recognize that the most likely times for them to erupt in some type of terrorist activity, violent storming of an embassy, is on their holy days.”

"They come out of [Mosques] like uncorked animals," he added.

So, you know, that strong logic might have something to do with it.