‘Credible but unconfirmed’: Terror threat clouds start of 9/11 ceremonies

The plot is believed to have links to militants in Pakistan.

NEW YORK:

President Barack Obama vowed on Saturday that the United States would never waver in its fight against terrorism as Americans ready for the 10th anniversary of 9/11 under the shadow of another terror threat.

Even as US intelligence agencies chased down what officials said was a credible but unconfirmed threat of an al Qaeda attack around the September 11 commemorations, Obama assured terrorism would never win.

“Ten years ago, ordinary Americans showed us the true meaning of courage when they rushed up those stairwells, into those flames, into that cockpit,” the president said in his radio and Internet address.

“We will protect the country we love and pass it safer, stronger and more prosperous to the next generation,” he added.

The specter of fresh threats hung over Americans as they readied to mark 9/11. A US official told AFP that “the general outlines of the initial report are three individuals coming into the country” last month, confirming the plot had links to militants in Pakistan.

US officials told US media that up to two of the operatives could be American citizens.

The New York Times reported that word of the plot was passed to US intelligence agents on Wednesday by an informer based in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The informer said two US passport holders of Arab ancestry had left Afghanistan and reached the United States as recently as last week, according to the daily.

But the informer’s report included only a vague physical description of the two men, the Times noted, with the first name for one given as Suliman, which is common in the Middle East.

Former national security advisor Frances Townsend told CNN Friday that US spy networks had been alerted to a new threat after intercepting communications from a known, reliable operative in Pakistan.

“It’s Washington or New York. A car bomb, three men. We know that one or two are US citizens,” she said. The intelligence prompted US security agencies to scour databases and flight manifests for clues.

“We’re looking at travel records, times, dates that people may have traveled, passenger lists, itineraries,” a US counterterrorism official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Washington Post.

In solidarity

Pakistani and American staff members of the US embassy in Islamabad gathered at the embassy premises to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Ambassador Richard Hoagland, the Charg‚ d’Affaires, read President Obama’s 9/11 memorial proclamation and went on to observe a moment of silence.



Published in The Express Tribune, September 11^th, 2011.