casper
01-08-2010, 09:18 AM
Obama outlines anti-terrorism flaws, reforms
Washington (CNN) -- President Obama outlined Thursday the intelligence and other government failures leading up to the botched December 25 terror bombing of a U.S.-bound jetliner.
The president also detailed a series of major reforms ordered in the wake of the attack.
"I will hold my staff, our agencies and the people in them accountable when they fail to perform their responsibilities at the highest levels," Obama said at the White House.
But "ultimately, the buck stops with me."
America's first line of defense against terrorism is "timely, accurate" intelligence that is properly integrated, Obama said. "That's not what happened" before the attack, he noted.
According to authorities, 23-year-old Nigerian national Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab tried to detonate explosives hidden in his underwear as a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, made its final approach to Detroit, Michigan, on December 25.
The device failed to fully detonate, instead setting off a fire at AbdulMutallab's seat.
Obama cited three problems that contributed to the government's failure to prevent the attack.
First, the intelligence community knew that an al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen intended to strike the United States and was recruiting operatives for the task, the president said. But intelligence operatives "did not aggressively follow up on and prioritize particular streams of intelligence related to a possible attack against the homeland," he noted.
Second, there was a "larger failure of analysis, a failure to connect the dots of intelligence that existed across our intelligence community."
Third, the intelligence failure contributed to flaws in the country's watch-listing system that resulted in the alleged bomber not being added to the no-fly list.
Washington (CNN) -- President Obama outlined Thursday the intelligence and other government failures leading up to the botched December 25 terror bombing of a U.S.-bound jetliner.
The president also detailed a series of major reforms ordered in the wake of the attack.
"I will hold my staff, our agencies and the people in them accountable when they fail to perform their responsibilities at the highest levels," Obama said at the White House.
But "ultimately, the buck stops with me."
America's first line of defense against terrorism is "timely, accurate" intelligence that is properly integrated, Obama said. "That's not what happened" before the attack, he noted.
According to authorities, 23-year-old Nigerian national Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab tried to detonate explosives hidden in his underwear as a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, made its final approach to Detroit, Michigan, on December 25.
The device failed to fully detonate, instead setting off a fire at AbdulMutallab's seat.
Obama cited three problems that contributed to the government's failure to prevent the attack.
First, the intelligence community knew that an al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen intended to strike the United States and was recruiting operatives for the task, the president said. But intelligence operatives "did not aggressively follow up on and prioritize particular streams of intelligence related to a possible attack against the homeland," he noted.
Second, there was a "larger failure of analysis, a failure to connect the dots of intelligence that existed across our intelligence community."
Third, the intelligence failure contributed to flaws in the country's watch-listing system that resulted in the alleged bomber not being added to the no-fly list.