The al-Malahem Foundation, Al-Qaeda’s media arm, posted an audio on militant websites offering three kilograms of gold, worth $160K, for the killing of U.S. Ambassador Gerald Feierstein, and also $23K for the assassination of any American soldier in Yemen.
Feierstein, having served eight overseas assignments before taking the hazardous Yemen post, “doesn’t worry about his own safety in the face of animosity,” said his wife, Mary Feierstein. "I'm constantly worried about him, but we don't worry as much as we used to because there is always something going on."
In September 2012, Al-Qaeda terrorists killed Feierstein’s counterpart in Libya, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans in the country’s eastern city of Benghazi.
But according to a letter written by committee leaders to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Ambassador Stevens was threatened in a posting on a pro-Gaddafi Facebook page prior to his untimely death.
So while Feierstein seems unworried about the large bounty on his head, it is his mother, Rose Feierstein, a 94-year-old retired government worker, who is terrified and fears for her son’s safety. “I’m worried about it,” she said, “and I hope he has sufficient security over there so he won’t be harmed, but I don’t know how good the security is.”
“Multiple U.S. federal government officials have confirmed to the Committee that prior to the September 11 attack, the U.S. mission in Libya made repeated requests for increased security in Benghazi,” asserted the letter. “The mission in Libya, however, was denied these resources by officials in Washington.”
Now the question is, without adequate resources to strengthen the U.S. security in Libya, how safe will Ambassador Feierstein be in a country known for being the hot-bed for Al-Qaeda terrorists?
“We take these threats very seriously,” said agency spokesman Peter Velasco. “Our embassy in Yemen already operates in a highly sensitive and difficult situation. We continue to support the government, military, and people of Yemen.”
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