with this, police have stepped up security checking cars, trucks and taxi cabs. the experts say that the threat may involve a car, truck or cab bomb. while there are no details of the threat, officials are taking all action. pete williams is they say they have a source in pakistan who has reported hearing from others that there was a plan to send three men to the united states to set off car or truck bombs either tomorrow, sunday or monday. around the 9/11 anniversary. that is what they know. in terms of who the men are, they don't know that. there were no names connected to this intelligence. how they would come here was a little uncertain. they might try to conceal the fact they had been in pakistan and that is what we are dealing with here. it is considered credible baugsz the source has given the u.s. dependable information in the past, but it is uncorroborated e body knows whether it is true. nobody knows whether there is such a plot, three men actually came here, and that is what they are trying to find out. so on one hand you have the preventive measure in new york and washington, and more searches, checking cars and trucks, in very visible police presence over both cities, and at the same time behind the scenes you have immigration officials and fbi checking the travel records to see if there is any data to confirm what this intelligence report says, and so far we are told they haven't found any such thing, but they don't know what that means. >> pete on top of the the story for us. thank you. >> you bet. and fewer institutions suffered greater loss than the new york city fire department. more than) >> as we think of this anniversary, this is why so many are thinking about this unconfirmed threat at the degree that they are at the moment, because as we think back to that day though, 9/11, 2001, what are the reflections that you have on that date? >> one of the reflections is that it is almost like yesterday for me. it is hard to believe that ten years have gone by. >> still. >> and as much advancement as we have made, it is remarkable how we are still in the war that has been lasting for over a decade if not over a decade almost. how many more people have died since 9/11, and some of the most bravest and, you know, strong people of our men and women who have sacrificed all since then for the freedom of our great land. i think about my cousin and i think about my other cousin mike moran who did not die, but he was scarred, and he was a firefighter whose brother was killed, john moran, but michael was also very well known for being a firefighter telling osama bin laden to kiss his royal irish derriere, and we have all changed since 9/11 and the loss we sustained and the city has changed a on the country has changed. it will never be the same, i don't think, anywhere in the near future. >> how would your cousin, react to how the change has occurred and what would he say today? >> well, it is hard to say. john was a great patriot, and i have said that john didn't have to wear a uniform to be a firefighter, although when he did, he took the oath and the pledge to serve the city, john would have done what he did had he not been a firefighter. and i think that looking back, i think that he'd say that we have take en the precautions that we needed to take, and he was a bit concerned for what he had been developing and exposed to, because he worked in special operations command which is folks who respond to just about every fire, but hazmat, and the terrorism, and he had information they didn't know about at that time in terms of what new york city was exposed to, and he would have criticisms of what we haven't done yet with the interoperability of the communicationsm is not where it should be and only one hazmat unit in new york city and there was only one years ago that was wiped out in one incident, and we need to create more hazmat teams across the city. >> and looking at the report card in preparation for discussing with you from the 9/11 commission, and you talk about in terms of operability, and there are radios used by the first responders, and should this happen again in this report, there are not adequate communications between them, and what do you make of that? >> well, one is that we can never get perfection, but we should strive for it. it is a shame to say the least and it is an outrage coming ten years after 9/11 where we ought to be as a nation, and not just for new york city, but for the first responders everywhere and the firefighters and the police and the ems who needs the tools to do the jobs the best they can, and without being able to communicate with each other, and police officers being able to understand that a building is falling down, but firefighters not, because they are not on the same line of communication is an outrage. we need to do everything not just here in new york city, but to change it. that is the greatest legacy we can give to the police officers and the first responders and firefighters who died on 9/11. >> and now you came down from washington, d.c. and how will you be spending this weekend on remembering 9/11? >> well, i had a few votes, so i had to miss a few mass there in queens and i will be there saturday and sunday at the 9/11 site, the ground zero to be with the presidents and the governors and the members of congress, and at some point i will try to get down to visit my family down in the /llrockaways where my john lived and aunt peggy and mona and ellen and the survivors of that family, and we are very, very close knit family. >> no doubt, and a trying weekend for you and your family. thank you, congressman joe crowley. a mom and a dad and two sons lost in an instant. stay with us. 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[ male announcer ] for a deeper clean, fight biofilm with listerine®. it is on. president obama wants his jobs bill passed and we heard that refrained in a joint session to congress, but today rather than courting powerful lawmakers he is appealing to the u.s. people. listen to the president just a few hours ago at the university of richmond, which, yes, happens to be the backyard of his republican archrival republican house leader eric cantor. >> i want you to call. i want you to e-mail. i want you to tweet. i want you the fax. i want you to visit. i want you to facebook. send a carrier pigeon. i want you to tell your congressperson, the time for gridlock and games is over. the time for action is now. the time to create jobs is now. pass this bill. >> all right. nbc's kristen welker is at the white house, and nbc's luke russert is covering capitol hill with us this day. kristen, starting with you, the president is putting on a bit of a campaign rhetoric or tone. what is the white house strategy here picking ohio and virginia as the first steps on this push for the jobs act? >> hey, richard, well, there is certainly an awareness that i (p'tor's hometown and john boehner's home turf and maybe a political advantage to that, but you are going to see the president out trying to sell the jobs plan. he is going to be traveling in the coming weeks and these scenes are going to be quite familiar. he knows and the white house knows that an entry gal part of getting this plan if not all of the plan passed through congress is to get the american people involved and to have them try to put the pressure on their lawmakers. you know, this president has been hammered recently by members of his own party who say that he has not been fighting enough lately for their ideals, and they were particular partic frustrated by the last debate and came out against maxine waters who came out to say he has not fixed the unemployment rate in the african-american community of 38%, and she say is as today she came out to say, she likes what he said and senator dianne finestein said it is a great speech, buá he has to hammer it home and get this passed. we will hear more of the fiery rhetoric from president obama in the coming days as he hits the road to sell this plan. richard? >> okay. thank you very much. over to luke now as we think about the issue of firing up his own party here. and luke, harry reid making an appeal to his own party here. >> well, we have had a new air of civility here, and john boehner and eric cantor saying they are looking for common areas to work with the president, but the majority leader ofb of the senate harry reid called for effectively the recession of the united states the tea party recession, putting the blame squarely on the tea party saying that the tea party republicans are holding thup i jobs bill from being pass and that is the focus that conservative republicans need to step a way and join with the more moderate democrats to pass a variation of the bill. they say this is interesting coming from reid saying that we have come back from the recess realizing that congressional approval is all-time low and 82% of the country disapproves of the job they are doing, and we are trying to work together and why is reid throwing the missiles at the tea party the day after the president's speech. and democrats are saying, look, we think that there are a lot of commonsense ideas in the president's bill, but where we run into issues going on in the next few weeks in terms of trying to get it passed is any tea party increase in any type of debt even if the spending is overall good for the economy, richard. >> what is the feeling on the hill there, luke? based on what you are saying and coming from the other side of the gop, are we expecting to see another showdown between the president, and a la the debt and deficit discussions? >> well, both sides realize they both emerged damaged, and there is an openness to listen to one another more than the last time around. listen to eric cantor's take on what the president's speech was last night. >> i think that the president needs to sort of step back off of his all-or-nothing approach. that is not the way things are done. good people can disagree as i $ave said before. >> and that is what cantor has been good people can disagree, but the one issue with the president's speech last night is that he felt it was all or nothing and i had to have a longer conversation with eric cantor and the house majority whip, and they said, look, there are things in the jobs bill to agree on. one, extending the payroll tax holiday which could pass. the issue is can you pass a bill that is going to cost about $447 billion, and the president said it is totally paid for, and can the house gop pass that? that is the real question and nobody thinks they will pass something that large, richard. a lot of what happens to this bill will ultimately depend upon what president obama presents to the people next week. he says he wants the super committee in charge and getting $1.5 trillion of debt taken care of by christmas to deal with this and what can they do next week and how could he show them what they can do in order to pass this bill? that is interesting to see. so far the republicans have an open mind on at least parts of it, ripped. >> quickly over to you, kristen, what is the read from the white house with a possible showdown as luke said, and what is the take from the white house? >> well, look, the white house is realistic and of course, they have put forth this plan. i think that there is some understanding that they are not going to get 100% of this plan passed, but you will see this president come out in the next several days with another suggesteded plan of how to decrease the deficit so that the white house is realistic, and president obama today also saying that he was heartened to hear the reaction from congressional leaders and from speaker boehner saying that he would be open to considering some of the president's plan, i think that everyone right now is feeling the pressure from the public, and the congress approval rating is all-time low in addition to the poll numbers that you heard from luke, so everyone is feeling a sense that they have to get something done. if the president does get a lot of pushback from congress, he will make them own these job numbers, and so to take the plan and take it on the campaign trail and make it a key part of the platform in 2012. richard? >> thank you, kristen welker and luke russert. >> i have a carrier pigeon coming your way. >> thank you, luke. carrier pigeons do work as luke said, and plenty of no shaortag of opinions on the president's plan. you can weigh in. next the powerful stories of 9/11, and the day that everything changed. just one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day helps defends against occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating. with three strains of good bacteria to help balance your colon. you had me at "probiotic." 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why wait? ask your doctor about latisse® from allergan, a company with 60 years of eye care expertise. >> and welcome back. you looking at new york's ground zero memorial as we prepare for a weekend of special events to remember the events of september 11. and again, seeing the developments that have happened over the last ten years including the freedom tower on the left-hand side. as we approach the tenth anniversary of the september 11 anniversary, some of the stories are of tragedy and resilience and survival. tom brokaw takes a look at at the lives changed forever on that day in a "dateline" special airing tonight. >> on the 84th floor of the south tower, stanley was the only person still alive. when united 175 flew into thesñ tower, he had been at his desk looking directly at it. >> what i saw was the biggest aircraft ever bearing down towards me. eye level, eye contact. it is coming towards me. i can still see the letters on the wing and the tail, big red letters. and i screamed, dropped the phone and dove under my desk. it was the most horrific, excruciating sound that you could ever, ever hear. it was like steel ripping against steel. this revving of an engine that the plane made just before it hit. it is like this sound is still in my ears like ringing. >> stanley could not believe he had survived the attack. >> and the wing was stuck in the office door, 20 feet from where i was. >> that is when he started yelling. >> oh, please, somebody help me. help me. help me. don't leave me to die. i don't want to die. i have two children and i have to go and see them. and i'm crying like a baby. >> coughing, stanley dropped to his knees and started crawling and praying. then when he'd almost given up hope, he saw the beam of a flashlight. >> and my first reaction was, what are the chances of somebody to have a light? am i dreaming? >> and through this crack where his hand had been sticking, i focused on the animated face on the other side. >> reporter: the flashlight belonged to brandon clark who was trying to find the stranger calling for help. now from both sides the two men now (lc% both sides the two men separating them. >> until we came to one finally immoveable object, and i don't know what it is, and i looked in there and i said, you must jump, that is the only way out of here. >> he said, you have to climb over and i said i can't, and he said, you have to if you want to live. >> somehow i grabbed him by the arm and i lifted him out of the hell hole that he was in and we fell in a heap on the floor. >> i gave that man a big hug and kiss and i said, you are my guardian angel. >> to break the clinch i said, i'm brian. and he said i'm stanley. >> in that midst of unspeakable violence and death, two strangers became instant friends. >> he said, we'll be friends for life. >> i said, well, i don't have any brothers, maybe we will be brothers for life. >> and there are so many more powerful stories that you can get an in-depth look into hosted by tom brokaw tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern. reminder to watch msnbc tomorrow at noon eastern we will have live coverage of the flight 93 memorial in shanksville, pennsylvania. and then sunday, live ceremonies at ground zero. and next, stories of two young men who made the ultimate sacrifice on that fateful day. this is lara. her morning begins with arthritis pain. that's a coffee and two pills. the afternoon tour begins with more pain and more pills. the evening guests arrive. back to sore knees. back to more pills. the day is done but hang on... her doctor recommended aleve. just 2 pills can keep arthritis pain away all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is lara who chose 2 aleve and fewer pills for a day free of pain. and get the all day pain relief of aleve in liquid gels. hey, jessica, jerry neumann with a policy question. jerry, how are you doing? 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>> well, it is a remarkable site, richard. i have not been down here for a long time, and to see frit this vantage point, you will get a new perspective of what it will look like. you will see the one of the two reflecting pools here and one of two 30-foot waterfalls that were constructed. t this is the idea of a young architect who said he wanted it to be the equivalent of a moment of silence and sight of emptiness, but a feeling of meaning. that is what these locations accomplish for the people who are going to be gathering here for the first time formally this sunday when it opens up to the families of the victims and the dignitaries, and officially open to the public monday. you will see as we open up the camera and give you a wider perspective of what the memorial site looks like. the sight of the flag was unfurled at 9:03 at the time that the second plane hit the south towers and the workers here who wanted to be a part of the events of this anniversary, and blowing the horns of those with memories lost, and unfurling the flag, and you will get an example of what is known as the freedom tower and what is known as 1 world trade center looks like. 80 stories tall. when it is completed, it will be at the spire 1,776 feet, and that is where the freedom tower name came from and the building itself will go to 1,376 feet. this is the largest, tallest structure in the united states y great progress is being done here. obviously, security is heavy in lower manhattan in anticipation of the events, richard. the efforts for us alone was challenging and we have been back to the streets to see in some places security checkpoints physically checking every single car who tries to cut through the streets here. below us is the intersection of west and liberty and the traffic flow is slower as there are more security checkpoints throughout the city to make sure that nothing suspicious is planned for this weekend. richard? >> amazing pictures, peter, as you show us the progress over the last ten years. i know this weekend it will be emotional not only from the united states, but around the world. peter alexander, ground zero. >> ten years ago this sunday morning life as we knew it in the u.s. and really around the world changed in a matter of moments. it is a memory that sticks with each of us, the moment that the plane crashed into the world trade center, and first one and then another, and then a third into the pentagon. and a fourth, into a field in pennsylvania. now, in those painful emotional moments, we as a country, as u.s. citizens watching from around the world were bound together. in all, 2,977 died that day. including 343 firefighters. far and away, the deadliest day in the history of the fdny. 184 died at the pentagon. 33 passengers and 7 crew members died as they fought down hijacker on flight 93, crashing in shanksville, pennsylvania. citizens of more than 90 countries were killed that day. 3,051 children lost a parent. 17 children were born after a father was killed on that day. 11 pregnant women lost their lives. and while we each have a personal connection to the events that day, there were some who had their entire lives rocked in the blink of one eye. those included retired nyfd who lost his son at ground zero, and the mother of mark bingham, a passenger on flight 93. members of two different families who are forever bonded by one day, that one moment. and i'm pleased to say that both jim and alice join us live. jim and alice, thank you for your time. jim, let me start with you, as we just through what happened on september 11th, 2001, and we approach the anniversary of that horrific, horrific event ten years ago, do you feel that the united states has honored the memory of your son, of alice's son properly? >> you know, i think that they died, and i mean, he is never going to walk through the door, and we have a terrible pain inside of us, alice and myself and all of the families. the memorial is glitzy and we didn't ask for anything like that. we just wanted a little memorial and it is a nice place where it is going to be, but you know, they didn't honor my son a firefighter. ten years later, they have not passed a emergency communicat n communications bill to help the communication of my other three sons who helped to carry his body out of there with me.gójdt, and i can't see the politicians down there, because they should get the job done and you had president bush and rudolphf giuliani down there telling us that the air quality is fine and it is going to be painful for a lot of people not allowed down there who did their job and they are sick and dying because of what they did, and it is wrong, but the memorial will speak for itself, and there are a lot of painful memory for us down there. >> alice, what about you in honoring your son's memory and other victims properly in the last ten years, what is your thought? >> well, i think that jim is correct. we have a long way to go when it comes to being safe. the 9/11 commission has pointed out the two chair lee hamilton and thomas keane have said that we don't have satisfactory communications so that the firefighters cannot talk to the police and this is not satisfactory on this anniversary of 9/11. my heart goes out to jim and the firefighters and the first responders who lost loved ones there at the world trade center site. it is heartbreaking and i spent time with tim browns who lost his dear friends terrence and patrick that day among the 90 friends that day he lost and i lost my son, mark, and there were 33 passengers and seven crew members all innocent aboard united flight 93, a terrible tragedy that day, but one interesting thing is that it is a bucolic and peaceful and tranquilsetting. so while we don't have the same problems involving the memorial that the folks in washington, d.c. and new york have, and my heart goes out to them. >> you know, chief, so many have addressed your son as well as alice's sons as heroes. do you see them as heroes? >> yes, i do. and the word hero was thrown around loosely, but here were men who stood up to the terrorists on the plane and my son went into that building and a plane sticking out of it. he was not sitting at a desk. he chose to go in there to help the people and that is what all of the firemen did that day. it is up to the politicians and those guys were 121 firefighters died in the north tower 28 minutes after the south tower fell because the communications were horrible and that is a shame. ten years later, we have not corrected it. it is totally a disservice and dishonor no the people who died that day. they exclude the firefighters there on 9/11 to let the politicians go is a smack in the face again, and you know, it is like we live everyday and this is an anniversary day for everybody else, but for us, it is everyday he is not there for the holidays or there for everything. there's an empty seat at our table. >> alice, what do you think in in your son's character made him do what he may have done on that fateful day september 11th, 2001? >> well, mark bingham spent half of the year being a rugby player and knew how to pit himself against an opponent, and he knew how to draw the best of the talents there. there were few passengers and empty 757 but four guys overu; height of 6'2" according to jerry mcglick and all four of them, jeremy mcglick, and todd bingham, and todd beamer, and i give the sports ability of those guys for making a big difference on september 11th. >> it is believed that your son and others did perhaps charge the cockpit on flight 93 in shanksville. i thank you both for taking time. i know that in two days, you will be remembering that fateful day ten years ago and we appreciate the time and effort that you have made to share your experiences with us today. >> you are welcome. thank you. >> thank you. >> and stay with us. just one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day helps defends against occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating. with three strains of good bacteria to help balance your colon. you had me at "probiotic." 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>> well, as i look back, it was so chaotic and it may not have sounded that way coming from me, but trust me, it was chaotic here in the pentagon. shortly after the first plane flew into the north tower up there at the world trade center, we started scrambling here at the pentagon the try to figure out who it was, what was happening, and clearly from the very beginning, it appeared to be al qaeda. and we were focussed on the reporting, but as you said, i was on the air and just threw it back to katy curic when the plane hit here and around the corner from the nbc here in the building, it is so huge and as the crow flies 200 yards, but nevertheless, i could feel the shutter of the buildings and the windows rattle. i stood up and saw people running from the building. all i knew at that time was some huge explosion had occurred and there were conflicting reports from inside of the building about exactly what happened, but clearly in short order we found out that flight 77 flew into the building. and just a quick, you know, that i talk about the pentagon, the building. you know, if you are here long enough, this place is a living entity, really. it was really remarkable because the plane flew into the building at the best possible place it could have to reduce the casualties, because those wedges over there were in the process of being renovated, so there were very few people there, and 125 people died, but if they had been normally occupied, hundreds more would have perished in that attack. >> well, mick, you talk about a living building and this is the heart of the u.s. military, and that structure as we are showing pictures very much damaged, and now rebuilt, but going back to the living parts of the pentagon, how are people today? how are they different? >> well, i think that they have a better sense of the mission. quite frankly in the late '90s, early 2000, there was this mission called "counter terrori terrorism" but nobody was focused on it here as a government, as a military, country. there were parts that were focusing on it, but not the focus that 9/11 created. and the fact that sure it took a while, because it was a cumbersome apparatus, but finally all of the various entities of the government appear to be cooperating more, more information sharing than there has ever been, and we keep hearing it not only from the bush administration before, but even from the obama administrat even from the obama administration that since 9/11 there has not been the kind of terrorist attack that had been predicted against domestic targets here in the united states. >> mik, talk about the flow of information. how it is easier since that date. what can you tell us about the new threat of terrorism on the actual anniversary sunday as we've been getting reports and that flow of information that you allude to? >> reporter: that information was developed only with the past 48 maybe 60 hours. very late in coming pup all intelligence officials said there's no credible threat, not even extensive chatter you would hear over terrorist networks. suddenly, a single source, apparently, reliable source, indicated that there were three individuals that flew from pakistan to dubai, then on to the united states with the intent of exploding car-truck bombs, concentrating on the dates around 9/11, and some of the targets they were looking at, according to this source, would have been tunnels and bridges to try to generate the largest number of casualties. i must -- i must emphasize here, though, that all the intelligence, law enforcement and military officials we're talking about emphasized this is not confirmed. not corroborated but never the less, the security forces that particularly in new york and here at the pentagon around these two observances on sunday are at their highest level of alert. >> as always, thank you so much, nbc's jim miklaszewski with the latest. appreciate it. challenging america's invinceability and might and altered a presidency beginning with the man who occupied the oval office that day. >> it was a tuesday, september 11, 2001. >> yeah. i had a lot of memories that day. it was andy card whispers in my ear. >> in a school in florida. >> i was. and andy says, a second plane hit the world trade center. america is under attack. my first reaction was anger. how dare they do this to america. and then i looked at the kids. their innocence in contrast to the evil of the attackers was apparent to me and i just knew that my job was to protect them. >> michael boeschlof. there's no longer a difference between a war time president and peace time president. does that distinction exist anymore, those two just made? >> i don't think it will exist for the rest of our lifetime, richard. nearly 11 years ago, between george w. bush and al gore, foreign policy barely discussed. look at the debate, wasn't mentioned. a feeling in the country foreign policy doesn't matter anymore. we had been through 51 years of a cold war. before that world war ii. americans had a tendency to think now the world's only superpower we can do what we want. we don't have to worry about the foreign policy details that we used to. 9/11 ended all that and changed all of our lives. >> how has that altered this sense of the super power and the united states being, again, as you alluded to earlier, thinking it was the only super power? how did that change for the u.s. president today? >> well, a president who came in like george w. bush, now barack obama, realizes what previous presidents perhaps did not realize. that is, there can never be such thing as dominant superpower in the world, because you can always have a possibility of terrorists who wish us ill using some kind of technology to cause a day you know, even much less you'd hope if it ever happens, then 9/11, the bloodiest day in american history, the battle in the civil war. that is something we're always going to live with. there are always going to be new forms of technology. anybody who works for the president or works for him or her will find it a paramount job finding new ways to keeping the nation safe. >> at a time of global awakening for the united states, how do you think this decade, then, will be remembered? >> reporter: well, we'll have to look back and say, were the things that george w. bush and barack obama did to keep the nation safe, were they enough, too much, too little? that's the kind of thing we'll know probably in 30 or 40 years. that really needed a perspective of time. only then can we look back and say we'll know what happened thereafter and be able to put these things in context. it's something we can't do even a decade later. >> how has president obama fared as a wartime president? >> well, he came in with two wars and three if you want to count the war on terrorism. that's something that rarely happens in american history. in recent times only richard nixon coming in after linden johnson had a president succeeding somebody in wartime, changing horses in the middle of a stream that experience of a president getting up and seeing security reports, casualties from yesterday. decisions he and she will have to make. that's something that will be, i think, a permanent part of the american presidency. i wouldn't have said that a decade ago. >> michael beschloss, thank you very much for your perspective. watch msnbc. live coverage of the 9/11 ceremony in shanksville, pennsylvania. starting at 8:00 sunday morning, live coverage of the ceremonies held at ground zero. we'll be right back. just one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day helps defends against occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating. with three strains of good bacteria to help balance your colon. you had me at "probiotic." [ female announcer ] phillips' colon health. i'm richard lui. thank you for joining us this afternoon. dylan ratigan will have much more on the september 11th anniversary coming up next. as we go, we leave you with indelible images from that life-changing day and from the ten-year im