Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R., Ga.) told Meet The Press Sunday the "chatter" coming from al-Qaeda members in recent days that led to the closings of more than 20 U.S. embassies was "very reminiscent of what we saw pre 9/11," and called it the most serious national security threat in the past several years:
DAVID GREGORY: Your Republican colleague in the house, Peter King, said this threat, this al-Qaeda threat, is the most significant that we have seen in many years. What have you been told about it?
CHAMBLISS: Well, the one thing that we can talk about, David, is the fact that there's been an awful lot of chatter out there. Chatter means conversation among terrorists about the planning that's going on, very reminiscent of what we saw pre-9/11. We didn't take heed on 9/11 in a way that we should, but here I think it's very important that we do take the right kind of planning as we come to the close of Ramadan. We know that's always an interesting time for terrorists. We're also, what, 38 days, 37 days away from the September 11th anniversary. So we're paying very, very close attention to the chatter that's going on, and I can tell you, David, this is the most serious threat that I've seen in the last several years.