Terrorists Post Threat on White House Facebook Page on 9/11 Anniversary
As Americans gathered across the nation to remember those who killed in the 2001 terrorist attacks against the U.S., there were reports Sunday that threatening messages had been left on the White House's official Facebook page. This comes amid intelligence reports of new attacks being plotted by al-Qaida against New York and Washington, D.C.
It was first reported by NBC New York Sunday afternoon that a user on the social networking website had left at least three messages on the White House's Facebook page, one including an image of bin Laden.
"We'll come back U.S.A. One day only 11/9/2011," read the message featuring a photo of bin Laden, according to an image acquired by the New York news station.
A second message read, "We'll come to u white house sooooooooooon." While the third read, "We'll come back 11/9/2011 to kill u all."
The date format used was reportedly meant to express Sept. 11, 2011, according to NBC New York, and not Nov. 9, 2011.
The Facebook commenter's user name appears in Arabic.
It was unknown when the threats were posted, and whether White House administrators were investigating the threats.
As of mid-Sunday afternoon, the messages could no longer be found in the White House Facebook timeline, indicating the threats may have been deleted.
Officials in New York City and Washington, D.C., have increased security after information was revealed from abroad of "specific" and "credible" threats of attacks against those cities' bridges and tunnels. The unconfirmed threats also indicated potential car bomb attacks.
The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI warned in a bulletin last Thursday that the attacks were possibly being planned by al-Qaida to avenge bin Laden's death.
Latest reports indicated that security officials were investigating the possibility of individuals tasked with carrying out the attacks already being in the U.S.
A screen grab of the threatening comments:
(Image courtesy of Facebook/NBC New York)