Enhanced Security And Intelligence Measures To Make Up For
"Human Errors"
President Barack Obama Thursday outlined his administrations'
efforts to beef up intelligence and security systems in the wake of
a failed attempt to detonate an explosive device aboard a Northwest
Airlines flight bound for Detroit on Christmas Day.
"In our ever-changing world, America's first line of defense is
timely, accurate intelligence that is shared, integrated, analyzed,
and acted upon quickly and effectively," Obama said in his prepared
remarks. "That's what the intelligence reforms after the 9/11
attacks largely achieved. That's what our intelligence community
does every day. But, unfortunately, that's not what happened
in the lead-up to Christmas Day. It's now clear that
shortcomings occurred in three broad and compounding ways"
The President cited the failure of the intelligence community to
follow up on and prioritize particular streams of intelligence
related to a possible attack against the homeland, a failure to
connect the dots of intelligence that existed across our
intelligence community and which, together, could have revealed
that Abdulmutallab was planning an attack, and shortcomings in the
watch-listing system which resulted in this person not being placed
on the "no fly" list, thereby allowing him to board that plane in
Amsterdam for Detroit.
Obama recommended a series of "correctional steps" to address
the issue. "I'm directing that our intelligence community
immediately begin assigning specific responsibility for
investigating all leads on high-priority threats so that these
leads are pursued and acted upon aggressively -- not just most of
the time, but all of the time," he said. "We must follow the
leads that we get. And we must pursue them until plots are
disrupted. And that mean assigning clear lines of
responsibility."
"Second, I'm directing that intelligence reports, especially
those involving potential threats to the United States, be
distributed more rapidly and more widely. We can't sit on
information that could protect the American people."
White House Photo
"Third, I'm directing that we strengthen the analytical
process," he continued, "how our analysis -- how our analysts
process and integrate the intelligence that they receive. My
Director of National Intelligence, Denny Blair, will take the lead
in improving our day-to-day efforts. My Intelligence Advisory
Board will examine the longer-term challenge of sifting through
vast universes of intelligence and data in our Information
Age."
"And finally, I'm ordering an immediate effort to strengthen the
criteria used to add individuals to our terrorist watchlists,
especially the "no fly" list. We must do better in keeping
dangerous people off airplanes, while still facilitating air
travel."
President Obama said the U.S. has taken a whole range of steps
to improve aviation screening and security since Christmas,
including new rules for how we handle visas within the government
and enhanced screening for passengers flying from, or through,
certain countries. But he concluded there is "no foolproof
solution" to the situation. He also said he was not interested in
"passing out blame." "For ultimately, the buck stops with me.
As President, I have a solemn responsibility to protect our nation
and our people. And when the system fails, it is my
responsibility," Obama said.