President plans homeland security meeting on Tuesday
POSTED: Thursday, December 31, 2009
President Barack Obama said he will review a preliminary report tonight on the failed terrorism attack on Christmas.
Obama, vacationing in Kailua, issued a statement today saying he will hold a meeting Tuesday in Washington to discuss what he called the “;human and systemic failures that occurred leading up to the attempted act of terrorism”; against a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines plane from Amsterdam.
“;I anticipate receiving assessments from several agencies this evening and will review those tonight and over the course of the weekend,”; Obama said. “;On Tuesday, in Washington, I will meet personally with relevant agency heads to discuss our ongoing reviews as well as security enhancements and intelligence-sharing improvements in our homeland security and counterterrorism operations.”;
He said he spoke this morning with John Brennan, his adviser for homeland security and counterterrorism, and to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano about the situation.
The preliminary report was likely to focus on the failure of intelligence agencies to put together various strands of information about suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, U.S. officials told the Associated Press.
Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian, was allowed to board the jet, allegedly carrying explosives materials, even though his father had alerted U.S. authorities of his extremist views
Obama has demanded answers on why the U.S. intelligence community never pieced together information that could have prevented Abdulmutallab, charged with trying to destroy the Detroit-bound airliner, from getting on the plane.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.