Terror 'dots' not connected, says grim Obama

A grim-faced Barack Obama blamed a deep failure of national intelligence for the botched Christmas Day plane terror attack over Detroit, saying the government had enough information but could not “connect those dots”.

Speaking last night after a blunt meeting with his security team, the US president said there had been even more “red flags” than had already been acknowledged – that an al Qaida affiliate in the Arabian Peninsula planned to strike the US and that it was working with the man accused of trying to blow up the plane with nearly 300 passengers and crew aboard.

“The information was there,” Mr Obama said, blasting agencies and analysts for not working out the threat, but without singling out individuals.

“I will accept that intelligence, by its nature, is imperfect,” he said. “But it is increasingly clear that intelligence was not fully analysed or fully leveraged. That’s not acceptable and I will not tolerate it.”

Mr Obama never said who, if anyone, in the government might be held accountable and the White House would not say whether any officials would be sacked.

The president’s own analysis was centred on identifying security gaps and filling them and in the course of that, he would determine whether anyone would lose their job, said one senior administration official familiar with Mr Obama’s thinking.

The White House released a statement later, quoting Mr Obama as telling security aides: “This was a screw-up that could have been disastrous.

“We dodged a bullet but just barely. It was averted by brave individuals, not because the system worked, and that is not acceptable.”

Mr Obama announced no new steps to improve the intelligence or security systems, but promised they would be coming, signalling more changes for air travellers and in the sharing of intelligence.

He made a point of recounting every step his administration had taken since the December 25 incident.

Since the attack, the government has added dozens of names to its lists of suspected terrorists and those barred from flights bound for the US. People on the watch list are subject to additional scrutiny before they are allowed to enter the country, while anyone on the no-fly list is barred from boarding aircraft in or headed for the US.

The Transportation Security Administration directed airlines to give full-body, pat-down searches to US-bound travellers from Yemen, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and 11 other countries.

One of those countries, Cuba, summoned the top US diplomat on the island yesterday to protest over the extra screening for Cuban citizens, calling the new step “this hostile action”.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian accused of trying to set off an explosive device aboard the plane as it came in for landing in Detroit, has told US investigators he received training and instructions from al Qaida operatives in Yemen.

His father warned the US embassy in Nigeria that his son had drifted into extremism in the al Qaida hotbed of Yemen, but that threat was never fully digested by the US security apparatus.

“When a suspected terrorist is able to board a plane with explosives on Christmas Day, the system has failed in a potentially disastrous way,” Mr Obama said.

“And it’s my responsibility to find out why, and to correct that failure so that we can prevent such attacks in the future.”

“We have to do better, and we will do better. And we will do it quickly.”

Meanwhile tight security – and perhaps nerves – was showing up far from the White House.

A Bakersfield, California, airport was temporarily shut down yesterday after officials said a passenger’s luggage tested positive for TNT. The suspicious material turned out to five Gatorade bottles filled with honey.