The neighborhood around the World Trade Center in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack. "New York was completely isolated," Martin Scorsese says. "Everyone was afraid to be here."
STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty ImagesThree days before the 10-year anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, news broke that counterterrorism officials had “specific, credible but unconfirmed” information on a threat against the United States in correlation to the upcoming milestone.
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“We have received credible information very reecently about a possible plot directed at the homeland that seems to be focused on New York and Washington, D.C.,” a senior administration official told CNN.
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Minutes after the report was published, “TERROR THREAT” became a trending topic in the United States on Twitter as users took to social media to discuss. Many journalists also used the site to deliver breaking bits of breaking news.
“Will terror threat level be raised?” Anderson Cooper asked before promising details on his AC360 show this evening.
Fox News reporter Chad Pergram tweeted, “House Intelligence Cmte. member Bachmann won’t say if she was briefed on terror threat. But says it “is being paid close attention to.”
“As an intelligence official just said to me, this has major teeth to it,” Steve Emerson tells @PiersMorgan of the terror threat,” the official Twitter for Piers Morgan Tonight said.
“Bottom line on terror threat: officials are looking for suspects. They have names, and an idea of the plot. But they aren’t sure it’s real,” ABC News reporter Steven Portnoy wrote.
New York Times reporter Brian Stelter observed “After speech, TV media immediately pivoted to unconfirmed “terror threat.” Unless they know something we don’t, seems out-of-proportion.”
Some users were also skeptical of the info’s timing, which came directly after President Obama’s national address on the budget crisis.
“Obama admin releases terror threat info just as speech rebuttals and analysis start. Gotta be a clueless sheep not to see thru that ploy,” observed Will Haynie.
Teflon Don said, “I feel like every time there’s a terror threat the government is just trying to get us to put trust & faith in them again..”
Many other Twitter users took to making light of the situation.
Aeri_Dashon1892 wrote “Sooo there is a TERROR THREAT for 9/11 again! Sooo how about everybody just Stay home on Sunday!”
“The only real terror threat is this economy,” sniped Rodney Trump.
“A terror threat? In the USA? And the validity can’t be confirmed? Nah. That never happens around here,” joked Johnathan Carey II.
