US Agencies Chase Down Potential Inauguration Day Terror Threat

from National Terror Alert Response Center

US intelligence services chased reports of a potential terrorist threat Tuesday as President Barack Obama was sworn in before massive crowds amid an unprecedented security lockdown.

Officials were tightlipped about the seriousness of the terrorist threat, with the Department of Homeland Security saying the information was “of limited specificity and uncertain credibility.”

But a Homeland Security official, who asked not to be identified, said it was linked to a militant Somali group called al-Shabab.

“The FBI has acknowledged publicly that there has been a lot of incoming information, all of which we are running to ground. This is the only specific bulletin that has gone out,” the official said.

With an estimated two million or more people jammed into the heart of Washington to celebrate the inauguration of the first African American president, security officials braced for a potential security nightmare.

But the most vulnerable moment of the day passed without incident when Obama and his wife Michelle stepped down from a slow moving motorcade and walked along Pennsylvania Avenue to the deafening cheers of the multitudes.

Secret Service agents in black coats walked the route, at the ready as Obama’s motorcade crept from the Capitol to the White House.

The Obamas moved through a city blanketed by more than 12,500 active troops and military reservists, thousands of metropolitan police with reinforcements from 99 law enforcement agencies around the nation.