Remembering 9/11
US intelligence officials said they had detected a potential terrorist plot timed to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
Security is to be heightened in New York City and Washington, DC, after a “specific, credible but unconfirmed” threat was discovered, according to a statement issued by the Department of Homeland Security.
ABC News reported that officials believe the alleged plot was initiated by the new al-Qaeda chief, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who pledged to avenge the death of Osama bin Laden earlier this year.
Janice Fedarcyk, FBI Assistant Special Agent, said – “al Qaeda has shown an interest in important dates and anniversaries. In this instance it is accurate that there is credible, specific but unconfirmed information.”
President Barack Obama was briefed on the information earlier on Thursday and requested that counterterrorism officials step up their response to the suspected threat – according to White House spokesmen.
It is understood that three people who recently entered the country, one of them a US citizen, are urgently being investigated by security officials over a potential plot to detonate vehicle bombs, possibly on bridges or tunnels.
Early reports indicated that attention was being focused on two missing rental trucks in Kansas City, Missouri. But these were later said to have been discovered and ruled out as a threat.
Notes seized in the US raid on the Pakistani hideout of Osama bin Laden, the former al-Qaeda leader, in May, indicated that the terrorist network had discussed the possibility of attacks to coincide with Sunday’s anniversary. A strike against American trains was suggested.
Details of the alleged new threat (which officials stressed had not been corroborated) are thought to have emerged from “chatter” in recent days between suspects under surveillance by US law enforcement and intelligence.
9/11.
New York police increased security, including vehicle checkpoints in midtown Manhattan and armed guards in front of the Office of Emergency Management, after receiving credible information that terrorists may be plotting an attack in the city around the Sept. 11 anniversary.
“Terrorists view the anniversary as an opportunity to strike again” – Mayor Michael Bloomberg said yesterday at a press conference. “In the next few days we should all keep our eyes wide open.”
Police cruisers took up positions on a midtown block of Lexington Avenue this morning as officers stopped trucks and other vehicles for inspection. Drivers were made to open the storage spaces of delivery trucks for police. In Brooklyn, police officers were observed in front of the city’s emergency management office.
New York police have stopped at least 13 terrorist attacks since 2001 – Bloomberg said. While the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has helped reduce the threat, the mayor said: “The one thing we know is the terrorists have not gone away.”
The threat concerns a possible al-Qaeda-sponsored attack targeting New York or Washington on or near the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attack, said a U.S. official, who wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The official said the intelligence concerns a possible vehicle-borne attack, perhaps on a transportation hub or bottleneck, and cautioned that the options may be broader than a car or truck bombing.
Americans Friday began somber ceremonies to mark the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks under the shadow of a new terror threat, as armed police patrolled New York still scarred by al-Qaida’s assault.
U.S. officials have revealed what Homeland Security called “a specific, credible but unconfirmed threat” against either New York (where memories of the September 11, 2001 attacks remain fresh) or Washington.
The details remain sketchy, but Vice President Joe Biden said Friday a possible car bomb may be at the heart of any threat, which came just three days before Sunday’s poignant remembrances for almost 3,000 people killed in the deadliest attack ever on American soil.
“We don’t have a smoking gun, but we do have talk about using a car bomb” – Biden told the ABC.
The vice president said the threat — on which both he and President Barack Obama were briefed — contained “specifics” that made it credible, but “there is no certitude.”
As New York gears for Sunday’s poignant ceremony at Ground Zero, the site where the felled World Trade Center once stood, heavily armed police patrolled the busy metropolis and bomb-sniffing dogs scoured the subway.
U.S. media reported the suspected plot was hatched overseas by al-Qaida, perhaps to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden in a U.S. raid in May.
Few details have been given, but one U.S. official told AFP a car bomb was “at the top of what we would be looking for.”
ABC News cited intelligence officials as saying the potential plot involved three individuals who entered the country by air last month with the intention of carrying out a vehicle-borne attack on or around the 9/11 anniversary.
It said the plot was ordered by al-Qaida’s new leader Ayman al-Zawahiri – who has vowed to avenge the killing of bin Laden.
Asked if extremists were plotting to enter the United States with a car bomb, Biden said: “we were told that that was an intention, to get people into the United States to do that.”