Investigators Assess Threat of Bombing Tied to 9/11
Counterterrorism officials on Thursday were assessing a new report of a threat of an attack in New York City or Washington using a car or truck bomb, timed to the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, according to several officials briefed on the matter.
In a statement, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, Matt Chandler, called the threat “specific, credible, but unconfirmed.” Another official said American intelligence agencies were urgently pursuing leads overseas in an effort to gauge the seriousness of the threat.
“It’s in the early stages, and a lot of vetting is being done in other places,” the official said.
President Obama was first briefed on the threat on Thursday morning, and members of Congress were briefed during the day, officials said.
A White House official said that while the government has already stepped up its vigilance in advance of the anniversary, “the president directed the counterterrorism community to redouble its efforts in response to this credible but unconfirmed information.”
The report of the threat came after several quiet weeks in which officials said they were scanning intelligence with extra vigilance before the anniversary, but had found nothing credible.
Mr. Chandler noted that in a notebook of Osama bin Laden seized after he was killed, the leader of Al Qaeda speculated about mounting an attack 10 years after 9/11 or on another symbolic date.