No confirmation of terrorist threats before 9/11 anniversary

Sep 9, 2011, 21:28 GMT

Washington - US officials on Friday were unable to confirm a specific terrorist threat against a target in New York City or Washington, but indicated there may be an al-Qaeda connection to the suspicions.

In a speech in New York to launch a new international counterterrorism effort, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that al-Qaeda appeared to be again 'seeking to harm Americans and in particular to target New York and Washington.'

White House spokesman Jay Carney said that the information about the threat was 'not corroborated, not confirmed.' Vice President Joe Biden told ABC news that there was 'no certitude' an attack had been planned, despite intelligence that came from a credible source.

Coming just days before Sunday's commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the warnings late Thursday by US officials set the country on edge.

US President Barack Obama's staff, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Clinton put the best face on it and urged Americans to go about their business, but with greater vigilance.

The Homeland Security Department did not raise a general terrorism alert, though bulletins were sent to police agencies across the country, according to media reports.

Carney said that Obama's plans on Sunday to visit the three sites of the terrorist attacks - New York, Washington and Shanksville, Pennsylvania - had not changed.

In a televised interview, Clinton urged the US public to 'go on with your life, but keep your eyes open.' She noted that New York City had foiled many terrorist plots since 2001, including the Times Square bomber who had been spotted by a food vendor in May 2010.

Biden confirmed earlier reports on the intelligence, saying that the CIA had gotten information that three men may have entered the United States with the intent to launch a vehicle bomb attack.

'We do have talk about using a car bomb. We've been told that was an intention,' he told broadcaster ABC News.

The 2001 terrorist attacks killed nearly 3,000 people, most of them at the World Trade Center's Twin Towers, which were struck by airliners used as missiles by al-Qaeda hijackers.

On Friday, Wall Street, which experienced hefty financial and human losses in the terrorist attacks, stopped all commerce and went silent for a minute in commemoration of the victims. Many hard-nosed traders stood with tears streaming down their faces.

After the terrorist attacks, Wall Street closed down four days as it sought to get back on its feet.

Hardest hit was bond firm Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost 658 of its 1,000 New York staffers from its offices in the World Trade Center. Company head Howard Lutnick survived only because he had accompanied his son to the first day of school and was going to work later than usual.

After al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was killed in May, US officials found evidence that he had been urging his followers to plan an attack on the US on the 10th anniversary of the suicide strikes.

The terrorist network's plot that saw hijackers fly two planes into the World Trade Center and a third into the Pentagon, the Defence Department's headquarters outside Washington. The fourth plane was diverted by passengers from a likely second target in Washington, and crashed in a Pennsylvania field.