Obama promises security increases

President Barack Obama said Tuesday that U.S. officials had all the intelligence needed to keep Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from boarding a Detroit-bound flight but "failed to connect the dots," putting at risk the lives of nearly 300 people on board in an alleged bombing attempt.
Calling it a "potentially disastrous" failure, Obama delivered his sternest words yet on the incident in the skies over Detroit on Dec. 25, saying he would not tolerate such future mistakes from his homeland security team.


"Intelligence was not fully utilized and not fully leveraged," he said. "We have to do better, and we have to do it quickly."


He said more airline security measures beyond those announced and changes to the way the U.S. decides who can fly into the country are coming.


Already, the no-fly watch list has been reviewed, revamped and expanded, he said.


U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Holland, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said the "standard is too high" for putting people on the no-fly list.

Meeting with his homeland security team, Obama said the suspected bomber was stopped only by "brave individuals" who intervened aboard the plane.

"We dodged a bullet, but just barely," Obama said, according to an excerpt from the meeting released by the White House.

Speaking to reporters after discussions with 20 of his top homeland security, diplomatic, intelligence and law enforcement advisers, the president promised more security measures to keep terrorists from boarding U.S.-bound flights and more rigorous review of who is placed on watch lists for increased scrutiny or prohibited from flying into the country.

More changes to the homeland security system are expected soon.

Most troubling to Obama was the fact that members of the U.S. intelligence community knew that 23-year-old Abdulmutallab had "traveled to Yemen and joined up with extremists there" and yet was able to board Northwest Flight 253 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The Nigerian man's father already had contacted U.S. officials to indicate his son could have been radicalized.

Obama also said that the intelligence community had "other red flags," including that al-Qaida's affiliate in Yemen intended to strike targets in the U.S. and that the terrorist group was working with someone "who we now know was in fact" Abdulmutallab.

Although he didn't outline the specific problem that could have caused such an intelligence failure, the president said it is being addressed.

Abdulmutallab is charged with trying to blow up the plane and is being held in a federal prison in Milan. At a briefing Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said FBI investigators "gleaned unseeable actionable intelligence" from Abdulmutallab during hours of interrogations.

Meanwhile, Republican critics continued to call for even stronger measures.

U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., of Holland, ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, wants lower standards for including people on the no-fly list; better resources for intelligence personnel to go after terrorism suspects; the charging of such suspects under military rules, and an end to transferring terrorism suspects from Guanta'namo Bay, Cuba, to Yemen.

Obama already has begun the last recommendation.