What is going on with our foreign affairs ministry? It emerged yesterday that the government had sent a strongly worded démarche (diplomatic protest) to ''foreign embassies'' about an alert issued by Washington to US citizens in South Africa about the possibility of an Islamic State attack here during Ramadan.International Relations and Co-operation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane complained bitterly about the way the US, and presumably the UK and Australia, which issued similar alerts, handled the matter."On closer examination, we have found the information to be dubious, unsubstantiated, and provided by a 'walk-in' source based on questionable conclusions,'' she said in a statement co-signed by the State Security department.With all due respect to the minister and our security cluster, how exactly do they know that the US relied on a single, dubious ''walk-in source''?Anyone with more than a passing knowledge of current affairs will know that superpowers - and the Americans are leaders here - use an array of intelligence-gathering techniques, both electronic and human, and that they employ veritable armies of analysts to make sense of the raw data. It is possible, nowadays, to hoover up vast troves of data, including telephone conversations and internet ''chatter'', that might suggest that an attack is being planned. It would be criminal, in a world in which terrorism has become all too common, for the US, or any other government, not to warn its citizens when such information comes to light. Public warnings also reduce the chances of planned attacks materialising.Nkoana-Mashabane, who embarrassed the country during a bizarre al Jazeera interview, and who has said she does not care whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton wins the US election, should tell us what exactly irks her about the US. Was it the tough negotiations over the Africa Growth and Opportunities Act, or does she buy into the conspiracy theory about a CIA plot to destabilise South Africa?..