Obama Reviewing Initial Reports on Christmas Day Air Incident
January 01, 2010, 8:50 AM ESTBy Nicholas Johnston and Viola Gienger
Jan. 1 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama is reviewing initial government reports on the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. airliner ahead of a meeting with top officials next week on intelligence gathering and aviation security.
Obama will spend part of the final days of his Hawaiian vacation looking at assessments of how intelligence agencies failed to heed warnings about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and how he was able to smuggle explosives aboard an airline flight.
“On Tuesday, I will meet personally with relevant agency heads to discuss our ongoing reviews as well as security enhancements and intelligence-sharing improvements,” Obama said yesterday in a statement. He also spoke with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and John Brennan, his adviser for homeland security and counterterrorism.
Obama ordered reviews of anti-terrorism and aviation- security policies after Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian, allegedly tried to blow up the Northwest Airlines flight as it prepared to land in Detroit. Abdulmutallab was charged Dec. 26.
Obama has said a “systemic failure” allowed Abdulmutallab to carry explosives onto the airliner leaving Amsterdam. Although Abdulmutallab was on a list of potential terrorists, he wasn’t subject to special screening at the airport.
Obama said Dec. 29 that U.S. intelligence agencies missed “red flags” that could have put Abdulmutallab on a watch list requiring extra screening or banning him from flying. Conventional metal detectors don’t detect the explosives Abdulmutallab was carrying.
Information Sharing
Initial reports from government agencies being sent to Obama are stressing the need to improve information sharing between agencies and link databases of intelligence, an administration official speaking on the condition of anonymity told reporters in Hawaii.
Agencies submitting reports and planning to attend the Jan. 5 meeting in the White House Situation Room include Homeland Security, the Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Justice, Director of National Intelligence, Transportation Security Administration, National Security Agency and Department of State.
Several congressional committees plan to hold hearings this month on the incident.
The Senate Intelligence Committee plans to begin its hearing on Jan. 21.
“Somebody screwed up big time,” said Kit Bond of Missouri, the panel’s top Republican.
Overseas Airport Officials
After the initial reviews, Napolitano said yesterday she is sending top aides to meet with overseas airport officials to better coordinate security and passenger-screening procedures.
The Netherlands and Nigeria announced this week they will start using full-body scanners to detect explosives being carried by passengers.
Dennis Blair, the director of national intelligence, vowed to “hold accountable” those who failed to do their jobs leading up to the attempted attack.
“In coming days, we will review what information was available to whom, determine what mistakes were made in assessing or sharing that information, commend those who did their jobs well and hold accountable those who did not,” Blair said in a letter to employees in the intelligence agencies he manages and coordinates.
The State Department said it is reviewing its visa procedures.
Valid Visa
Abdulmutallab had a valid visa for travel to the U.S. when his father warned officials at the American Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, that his son was in Yemen and had adopted extremist views. While the information placed Abdulmutallab on one watch list, he wasn’t placed on a no-fly list that would have kept him off planes to the U.S. and his visa wasn’t revoked.
The State Department has said such revocations would have to be determined by an inter-agency group in a specified process.
Airline security and intelligence were overhauled after the Sept. 11 attacks, including creation of the Department of Homeland Security to improve intelligence-gathering and the Transportation Security Administration to take over passenger screening at airports.
Eight years later, “the same kind of failures that were there in 9/11 were present in this one,” former New Jersey Governor Tom Kean, a Republican who was chairman of the commission that examined the Sept. 11 attacks, said in an interview Dec. 30. “No one is connecting the dots.”
--With assistance from Jonathan D. Salant, Angela Greiling Keane, Catherine Dodge and Brian Faler in Washington. Editors: Laurie Asseo, Robin Meszoly
To contact the reporters on this story: Nicholas Johnston in Honolulu at njohnston3@bloomberg.net; Viola Gienger in Washington at vgienger@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jim Kirk at jkirk12@bloomberg.net.
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