I'm going to turn the TV off on September 11th. And close all the web browser tabs I have open on news sites.
This isn't to belittle the events of ten years ago, or to show disrespect for the victims and their bereaved: rather, it's to avoid the narcissistic and indecent media feeding frenzy that battens onto popular sentiment and attempts to jerk every tear from the emotional aftermath of tragedy, the better to milk the advertising revenue stream.
If the media really wanted to mark the occasion respectfully, they'd do so by holding a minutes' silence at 8:46am EST this Sunday.
Vice President Joseph R. Biden said that counterterrorism officials were investigating a “credible” but uncorroborated threat of a car-bomb attack in New York City or Washington, timed to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Mr. Biden said he and President Obama had been briefed on Thursday about a report on the threat. “There are specifics — in that sense it was credible,” Mr. Biden said on Friday on the ABC News program “Good Morning America,” “but there’s no certitude.”
“We don’t have the smoking gun,” he said, “but we do have talk about using a car bomb.”
Mr. Biden’s comments on the morning news programs followed a statement from a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday night that called the threat “specific, credible, but unconfirmed.” On Friday morning, there was an increased police presence in downtown Manhattan, with all but one in-bound lane of the Brooklyn Bridge closed as officers checked some trucks and vans.
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.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York and the city’s police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, said at a news conference on Thursday night that the police would set up vehicle checkpoints around the city, increase bag checks on the subway and keep a closer eye on bridges and tunnels.
The mayor noted that the threat information had not been corroborated and warned against an overreaction. “The best thing we can do to fight terror is to not let it intimidate us,” Mr. Bloomberg said, adding that he planned to take the subway in the morning as usual.
A White House official said on Thursday evening 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.
“As we always do before important dates like the anniversary of 9/11, we will undoubtedly get more reporting in the coming days,” Mr. Chandler said. “Sometimes this reporting is credible and warrants intense focus, other times it lacks credibility and is highly unlikely to be reflective of real plots under way.
But he said officials take all threat reports seriously. “We continue to ask the American people to remain vigilant as we head into the weekend,” he said.
One law enforcement official said the initial intelligence report said that at least three suspects in a reported plot, one of them an American citizen, left Afghanistan and entered the United States by air last month. Intelligence agencies have not confirmed the report or identified those involved, the official said.
The official, who like others would speak of the investigation only on the condition of anonymity, said there was no connection to rental trucks reported missing in Kansas City, Mo. The trucks have been recovered and are not believed linked to the threat.
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