Obama admits intelligence system failure, vows to do better

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has said his government had enough information to thwart the botched Christmas Day terror attack on a US airliner, but intelligence failure to “connect those dots” shows “the system has failed” in a major way.

“When a suspected terrorist is able to board a plane with explosives on Christmas Day, the system has failed in a potentially disastrous way,” he said Tuesday at the White House in a statement to reporters after a review meeting with his security team.

“And it’s my responsibility to find out why, and to correct that failure so that we can prevent such attacks in the future,” Obama said. “So we have to do better, and we will do better, and we have to do it quickly. American lives are on the line.”

Noting that US intelligence had uncovered numerous “red flags” before the attack, Obama said: “The US government had sufficient information to have uncovered this plot and potentially disrupt the Christmas Day attack, but our intelligence community failed to connect those dots, which would have placed the suspect on the no-fly list.”

“In other words, this was not a failure to collect intelligence; it was a failure to integrate and understand the intelligence that we already had,” the president said. “The information was there, agencies and analysts who needed it had access to it, and our professionals were trained to look for it and to bring it all together.”

Obama said he could accept the imperfect nature of intelligence work, “but it is increasingly clear that intelligence was not fully analysed or fully leveraged,” he said, adding: “That’s not acceptable, and I will not tolerate it.”

Nigerian-born Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab is alleged to have tried to detonate explosives hidden in his underwear as a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam made its approach to Detroit Dec 25.

Listing steps so far to enhance security in the wake of the attempt, including more airport screening and tighter monitoring of US visa holders, Obama said he ordered his national security team to complete preliminary reviews of the situation this week so that suggested reforms can be implemented right way.

“Time and again we’ve learned that quickly piecing together information and taking swift action is critical to staying one step ahead of a nimble adversary,” Obama said.

The president reiterated, however, his intention to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. But, given the unsettled situation, transferring Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo back to Yemen would be halted for now.

“We will close Guantanamo prison, which has damaged our national security interests and become a tremendous recruiting tool for Al Qaeda,” Obama said. “In fact, that was an explicit rationale for the formation of Al Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula.”

Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said FBI investigators “gleaned usable, actionable intelligence” from AbdulMutallab in the hours after his arrest. but he declined to elaborate on the nature of the intelligence.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)