breaking news, a new terror threat as an urgent search unfolds for tlooe three individuals linked to a specific credible threat to a terrorist attack on the anniversary of 9/11. >> we know that terrorist view the anniversary as an opportunity to strike again. >> we've got exclusive details from the white house. new jobs act.

president obama pitches s sweeping jobs' bill. half what a trillion dlafrs to put americans back to work. >> pass this jobs' bill. >> we'll tell y y how he plans to do it. and the west, a massive power outage in southern california reactors offline and a nuclear plant and in the east, more than 100,000 people are evacuated as major rivers continue to rise. >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city and terry moran in washington, this is "nightline" september 8th, 2011. good evening. i'm terry moran. we want to bring you defrals the white house to the new york city police department are calling a new credible terror threat against american civilians. it appears a puzuze piece fell into place in the last two days

and here's brian ross with the latest, brian? >> the source of the information is not known to us but officials say it was developed by the cia overseas described both as unconfirmed but also, specific and credible. u.s. officials say tonight the plot was initiated by al qaeda's new leader, who has pledged to avenge the death of osama bin laden. officials tell abc news the plot involve there'd individuals including at least one who was a u.s. citizen. the officials say the plot involved some kind of vehicle bomb was aimed for some time between september 10th and 12th with either new york or washington as the target. the thre reportedly travelled from pakistan's tribal areas through dubai to the u.s. in mid august. >> this is probably dowowto a few hundred people. but it doesn't take many people to do this kind of attack. >> reporter: in new york's times square, there was no obvious

show of an enhanced police presence beyond what is normally there. but the mayor and the police commissioner said the credible but uncorroborated threat would require a significant show of security across the city. >> we live in a world where we must take these threats seriously and we certainly will. the public is like lip to see and maybe somewhat inconvenienced by, vehicle checkpoints at various locations throughout the city. >> reporter: u.s. officials have been bracing for such a plot after discovering documents in bin laden's pakistan hide outwhere he called for a strike against the u.s. on the tenth anniversary of september 11th. in the recent video last month he called on his followers to focus on the u.s., tracker down and make an example out of her. the united states has been looking fofo intently for the last few weeks for any sign of this attack coming. because it made sense to u.s. intelligence that al qaeda would try it.

up until now they didn't have any evidence that there was an attack plot under way. >> reporter: police in new york plan a full show of force starting early tomorrow morning with roving and random vehicle checks, bag checks, more bomb dogs on patrol, radiation monitoring equipment deployed. increased focus on tunnels, land mark locations, houses of worship, increased towing, bomb sweeps of parking garages and arrangement of previously planned police exercises with the national guard putting heavily armed personnel all over the city. >> a credible threat, clearly. thanks for that report brian ross. >> i spoke with the white house and they said the president has received multiple briefings on the threat throughout thehe day. pierre thomas joins us. pierre, what's happening tonight? what do you anticipate tomorrow from local police and federal law enforcement. >> terry, the potential threat is being treated extremely seriously and a bit ago the fbi

and homeland security sent out a bulletin warning 18,000 police agencies about their concerns. the bulletin lays out the basic details of the potential plot mainly that the threat is focused on new york city and washington, d.c. it warns the police that during the bin laden raid indicated he was obsessed with trying to launch an attack on the u.s. homeland on or around the 10th anniversary of 9/11. they want police everywhere, paying attention to any leads that might be related. so tonight, the fbi and the entire intelligence community are trying to identifyotential suspects who might be involved and then they'll try to figure out if this is a real viable plot or not. terry, tomorrow, not just in new york, but also here in d.c. and many other major cities, commuters can expect to see a massive show of force from police at airports, subway stops and train stations. they're taking no chchances. >> obviously. serious credible threat.

pierre thomas thanks very much. stay with abc news for the latest on this story throughout the night into tomorrow. just ahead, we switch to the economy. president pitches a jum bop jobs plan. could $400-plus billion finally break through the political wall? [ man ] behind every business is a "what if." what if we designed an electric motorcycle? what if we turned trash into surfboards? whatever your what if is, the new sprint biz 360 has custom solutions to make it happen, including mobile payment processing, instant hot spots, and powerful devices like the motorola photon 4g. so let's all keep asking the big what ifs. sprint business specialists can help you find the answers. sprint. america's favorite 4g network. trouble hearing on the phone? visit sprintrelay.com.

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>> announcer: "nightline" continues from washington with terry moran. it happened tonight, the president speaking before a full congress and it had something of the feel of third and long. the president faces the lowest approval ratings of his stubbornly high unemployment numbers in the economy and took the podium before a packed congress and pitched a major new jobs' plan. here's what he said hand how he played it. he came looking for a fight. you could hear it in some of his opening lines. >> the question is whether, in the face of an ongoing national crisis, we can stop the political circus and actually do something to help the economy. >> reporter: and his basic message to the bitterly divided congress was kind of a command repeated again and again. >> pass this jobs' bill. >> pass this jobs' bill.

pass this bill. passsshis jobs bill. >> a $400 billion jobs program that calls for extending and expanding the payroll tax cut for workers. new spending on infrastructure, school and housing and help for the unemployed andax cuts for businesses to spur hiring. but it was the way he spoke of the plan that was different tonight. he tried to reflect and channel the anger and disgust in the country. >> building a world-class transportation is part of what made us an economic super power and now we're going to sit back and watch china build newer airports and build faster railroads at a time when millions of unemployed construction workers could build them here in america. >> democrats in the chamber loved it and the republicans predictably, sat on their hand most of the speech but president obama seemed to relish calling them out. especially on their opposition to extending the payroll tax cut. >> i know that some of you have sworn oaths to never raise any taxes on anyone for as long as

you live. now is not the time to carve out an exception and raise middle-class taxes which is why you should pass this bill right away. >> reporter: but will it make any difference? >> he's just over his head and right now he's flailing about. >> he can't lead this country. he can't even lead his own party. who on this stage can get america working? because we know the resident of the white house cannot. >> as you can you can hear in the republican debate last night the partisan lines are hardening as the economy worsens. a few gop members of congress proudly declared they were skipping the speech. they didn't even want to listen. and some of the president's own supporters like lay were leader james hoffa jr. are poisoning the debate with threats and thuggery. the economic crisis in america has sparked a fierce debate about first principles about what we want our government to do. and president obama made clear tonight, he's now joining the fray. rejecting libertarian arguments

about shrinking government with a linki litany of liberal accomplishmentes. >> where would we be if the people before us decided not to build our highways or bridges or dams or airports? what would this country be like if we had chosen not to spend money on public high schools? or research universities? or community colleges? what kind of country would this be? if this chamber had voted down social security or medicare just because it violated some rigid idea about what government could or could not do. >> reporter: that's a campaign argument. but as the president noted, the election is still 14 months away and americans are hurting. >> they need help and they need it now. >> reporter: the president, tonight, on jobs and let's go right to the white house. joining us is david pluff senior advisetory president obama. david that's for being with us. i want to ask you first if i

may, about this new "credible terror threat" linked to the tens anniversary of 9/11. i understand president obama has been briefed. what can you tell prus from the white house? >> the president was briefed this morning and updated throughout the day. the united states government has been on an enhanced security measures in advance of the tenth anniversary of 9/11 already. the president's obviously asked the counterterrorism officials to redouble their efforts in light of this credible, but yet unconfirmed threat. >> it's your sense this is for real? >> it's been reported that it's specific and credible but it's not confirmed. given this is the tenth anniversary, obviously the way osama bin laden's compound, if you have 2346gs that this was the type of time frame, obviously, al qaeda would potentially target. we need to be very vigilant here and both at the federal government, local government level as well. >> let's turn to the speech, then. given what we've been seeing out of washington over the past

several months, the president getting nothing out of this congress, he couldn't even make the speech on the day he wanted to. explain how what the president said tonight is relevant to that overriding concern out there, jobs? >> well, the president made, and i think a passioned plea to congress that the american people need action right away but with the economy so fragile and so many people hurting, how will our nation's leaders report back to constituents we didn't do anything to help the economy so the president laid out some things that would have a profound impact on the economy, lower the unemployment great, create growth, help small busisinesses, middle class workers, veterans, teachers and it's fully paid for. so we're not naive. we know this will be a tough debate but i think most people here in washington understand that we have to do something and that's the point the president made tonight. >> and he made it combatively. he used the word "impassioned." he was picking a fight? i didn't hear a lot of compromise in the speech.

a lot of people might hear it as a campaign speech. >> i think what he was doing was channelling the american people who are saying, with about as loud a voice a a they can, knoc off the political circus, get to work, and fix this. >> the president said the proposals he outlined, tax cuts for small businesses. putting teachers back on the job. rebuilding roads and bridges and modernizing our schools, these are traditionally items with bipartisan support. if you see tonight, the speaker of the house, house majority leader, put out statements say they think some of these proposals merit consideration so hopefully the american people lift their voices and say, congress, time to do your job and focus on the economy. >> good luck. thank you very much for joining us from the house white house. the jobs debate. just ahead, a giant power blackout hit southern california and arizona tonight and meanwhile, spreading flooding here in the east with rivers still rising. stay with us.

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one minute the traffic lights were working and the tvs were on and the next thing, millions of people in arizona and southern california this afternoon, there was no power for hundreds of miles. and the outage spread across the border to mexico. just wait until you hear what they think caused this power out age. here's abbie boudreau. >> reporter: about two million people are out of power but we're told lights are coming back on in some areas. this is usually a busy intersection with traffic lights. but tonight, they'll have to

settle for temporary stop signs. the outage covers all of san diego county, parts of orange county and goes inland all the way to the arizona border. the outage is causing major problems. businesses are closed. traffic is at a standstill. public transportation is offline. the san diego airport is currently operating on generators. all outbound flights have been grounded for now. what we're being told by the ads public service company is that one employee carrying out repairs at the substation northeast of yuma, made a mistake and knocked off the power. now, that should have just been localized at that specific substation but more mistakes were made. and it spread like wildfire into southern california. what that means is that the main source of electricity into a huge swat of southern california went away. nuclear plant on the coast is not connected to the system right now and it appears to have

shut down automatically because of the change in the power grid as its designed to do, like a circuit breaker. southern california power officials have managed to restore some electricity and say they're doing everything they can but already warning people this could last into tomorrow. officials say most people will be out of power well into tomorrow and the only good news, at least for kids around here, school will be closed tomorrow. terry? >> thanks, abbie. now to the east coast where hundreds of miles of the susquehanna river and the tributaries are having unprecedented flooding. some places measured at nearly 20 feet above flood level. here's weather editor sam champion. >> reporter: the remnants of tropical storm lee has brought a seriously of record-setting downpours, and sending rivers spilling over their banks for the second time in less than two weeks. much of the northeast is still reeling from hurricane irenene t

for some, lee may be even more dangerous. in pennsylvania alone, more than 100,000, wet, weary residents have evacuated and there are warnings it could get even worse. philadelphia is already received 41" of rain so far this year, leaving residents under water and overwhelmed. >> there was a car that had floated up on to my porch. >> i can't take it no morer. >> reporter: these floodgates are the only thing keeping the susquehanna river out of wilkes berry. this is the first time they've been tested. the floodwatats rose so fast at this zoo in hershey, pennsylvania, two bison had to be put down when they couldn't be rescued and started to drown. four human deaths have been attributed to flooding throughout the state and rescues are ongoing. north, binghamton, is suffering through its wettest year in history. the river has gone over retaining wall morse than 11 feet above flood stage breaking a re