Caustic Light on White House's Reaction to a Terrorist Threat WASHINGTON - The gloating among jihadists and their sympathizers began last week, right after the United States shut down almost two dozen diplomatic posts across the Middle East in response to a terrorist threat. God is great! America is in a condition of terror and fear from Al Qaeda," wrote one jihadist in an online forum. Another one rejoiced: "The mobilization and security precautions are costing them billions of dollars. We hope to hear more of such psychological warfare, even if there are no actual jihadi operations on the ground. The jihadists are not the only ones who see the new terrorist alert in a caustic light. The Obama administration's decision to evacuate so many diplomats on such short notice - however justified by the seriousness of the threat - has upset some of its foreign partners, who say the gesture contributes to a sense of panic and perceived weakness that plays into the hands of the United States" enemies, and impedes their efforts to engage with people in their countries. Some American officials have also said they believe the administration overreacted, in large part because of the political fallout from the attack last year on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the American ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens. Since that attack, security procedures have been tightened at American diplomatic outposts across the Middle East. Those embassies are already so heavily fortified against attacks that many diplomats lament it is more and more difficult for them to do their jobs. "I think since Benghazi the administration has been in a defensive crouch, and they are playing it as safe as they can," said Will McCants, a former State Department counterterrorism official who is now an analyst at the Center for Naval Analyses in Alexandria, Va. The government of Yemen issued a rare public rebuke to the Obama administration on Tuesday, declaring in a statement that the evacuation "serves the interests of the extremists" and undermines cooperation with the United States. As if to answer the gesture, Yemen announced Wednesday that it had foiled a spectacular plot to bomb oil pipelines and take over major ports - an assertion that was greeted by analysts both here and abroad as little more than cynical political theater aimed at proving that Yemen was capable of defeating Al Qaeda on its own. The diplomatic shutdown may have been especially jarring, analysts say, because the administration has portrayed Al Qaeda as a waning force in the past year. "The impression the administration left was that Al Qaeda was dead or close to dead," said Bruce Riedel, a former Central Intelligence Agency case officer and a Brookings Institution scholar. In which case, why are we so worried about a conversation between two Al Qaeda leaders? The intercepted conversation in question was between Ayman al-Zawahri, who succeeded Osama bin Laden as the leader of Al Qaeda, and Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen. American officials and lawmakers have said the conversation revealed one of the most serious terrorist plots against Western interests since the attacks of Sept. But the vagueness of the threat has made it easier to question the Obama administration's response. The two men did not specify the nature or location of the attack, American officials say. The timing was also unclear, though the attack was apparently originally scheduled to take place last Sunday. In an appearance Tuesday on NBC's "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," President Obama defended the government's initial decision to shutter 22 embassies and consulates. The State Department said Monday that 19 diplomatic missions would remain closed through the end of this week. "Whenever we see a threat stream that we think is specific enough that we can take some specific precautions within a certain time frame, then we do so," Mr. Obama said.