U.S. Studying Possible NYC Terror Threat
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. authorities are studying a terror threat to New York City and are "very concerned" by the volume of threats to U.S. interests at home and overseas, a U.S. intelligence official said on Friday.
But there was some confusion over the level of the threat, with New York police officials saying they knew of no credible threat to the city, site of the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center by hijacked airliners.
In Washington, the White House spokesman said the Homeland Security Department had sent out a number of warnings to security personnel around the country in the run-up to the holiday season.
"We have remained concerned about the volume of reporting of threats and that is why the Department of Homeland Security has sent out several bulletins over the past few weeks tohomeland security officials and law enforcement personnel, urging all to continue be on heightened state of alert especially as we enter the busy holiday season," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
The U.S. intelligence official, who spoke on condition he not be named, said of the reported threat to New York: "We are in the process of trying to determine its credibility and trying to corroborate it."
"There has been a threat to New York City that we're aware of," the official added.
"We remain very concerned about the volume of threat reporting to U.S. interests both here and abroad," he said.
"That's why we, over the course of the past few weeks, have sent out a number of bulletins and communications, to homeland security professionals," the official said.
The goal of the communications was "to maintain a heightened level of alert, especially as we enter the busy holiday travel season," he said.