Obama queries security failings

PRESIDENT Barack Obama is demanding answers on why information was never pieced together by the US intelligence community to trigger red flags about an alleged terrorist involved in a Christmas Day attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner.

Officials are looking for failings that allowed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian with suspected ties to al-Qaida, to board the Northwest Airlines flight from Nigeria by way of Amsterdam.

Obama’s criticism came as senior US officials told reporters that intelligence authorities are looking at conversations between the suspect in the failed attack and at least one al-Qaida member.