The level of terrorist threat presently is comparable to that ahead of the September 11 attacks, President of the Institute for Middle East Studies Yevgeny Satanovsky said on Monday commenting on the closure of American embassies and consulates in some Middle East and African countries for security reasons. “The level of threat at the moment is maybe like it was ahead of September 11, 2001, before the terrorist attack in New York, which is why American embassies have been closed,” he said. “Since the times of war in Afghanistan, Americans have been nurturing Islamic radicalism, training and arming Islamists, and not only in Afghanistan against the Soviet Army,” Satanovsky said. “Washington keeps making the same mistakes in a sense,” he added. “We saw this two years ago in Libya with a due result. We are now seeing it in Syria and in many other parts of the Islamic and Arab world,” he continued, noting that “the result is rather sad as aid to political Islam is the Pandora\'s Box which should not be opened”.