Biden: ‘Credible source’ for 9/11 terror threat [video]

As authorities in New York and Washington stepped up security on Friday morning, Vice President Joe Biden told morning news shows that intelligence officials had information from a “credible source” that terrorists intend to enter the U.S. in advance of the Sept. 11 anniversary Sunday and attack targets “using a car bomb.”

The FBI has set up a dedicated cell in its Washington operations center to monitor information about terrorists using a car bomb to attack sites in New York and Washington.

Intelligence officials do not have specific names or fragments of names of the potential attackers, according to a U.S. official.

The New York Police Department has stepped up security around the city’s bridges and tunnels, set up vehicle checkpoints on streets around the city and increased checks of subway riders’ bags, said the city’s police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, at a news conference Thursday night.

Four months ago, when information found at the Osama bin Laden compound indicated Al Qaeda’s interest in launching an attack against the U.S. on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, President Obama told his counterterrorism czar John Brennan to “get going on” running down “every lead related to 9/11,” Biden said on ABC News on Friday morning.

“All hands are on deck,” he told NBC’s “Today” show, while also urging Americans to be vigilant. Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy