DENNIS BLAIR, the Director of National Intelligence and one of the officials most criticised for the security lapses that almost enabled a Nigerian to blow up a US airliner on Christmas Day, says US intelligence services have heeded President Barack Obama’s rebuke over their poor performance.
“The intelligence community received the president’s message – we got it, and we are moving forward to meet the new challenges,” Mr Blair said on Tuesday evening, following Mr Obama’s meeting with 20 top-level security and intelligence officials at the White House. Speaking more forcefully than at any time since the attempted attack, Mr Obama said: “The bottom line is this. 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 ... ”
Mr Obama was reportedly more scathing during the closed-door meeting, telling officials: “This was a screw-up that could have been disastrous. We dodged a bullet, but just barely.”
Mr Obama said he would make a summary of two continuing security reviews public “within the next few days”, adding that he would also “announce further steps to disrupt attacks, including better integration of information and enhanced passenger screening for air travel”.
Citizens from 13 Muslim countries and Cuba travelling to the US have been subjected to special scrutiny under new rules that took effect on Monday. Civil liberties groups have raised concerns that the administration has introduced “profiling” – the singling out of passengers based on race or religion.
The failed airline plot and a subsequent suicide bombing that killed seven CIA agents in Afghanistan have dominated news in the US in the early days of the new year, with Republicans accusing Mr Obama of being “soft on terrorism”.
Republicans have also called for heads to roll. “For the last six to eight months there’s been a feud between the (Director of National Intelligence) and the CIA,” Peter King, the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee told the Wall Street Journal. “These agencies are using their skills that should be used against the terrorists against each other.” Several congressional committees have announced plans to hold hearings on the issue.
The White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the Homeland Security director Janet Napolitano, CIA director Leon Panetta and Mr Blair still have the confidence of the president.
But in his statement, Mr Obama tried to appear strong-willed, almost angry. “It is increasingly clear that intelligence was not fully analysed or fully leveraged,” he said. “That’s not acceptable, and I will not tolerate it ... I want our initial reviews completed this week. I want specific recommendations for corrective actions ... I want these reforms implemented immediately.”
Yet as the Washington Post pointed out, “(Mr Obama’s) instinct when facing all types of problems – Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, the Fort Hood shootings, the pending Gitmo closing – has led him to the same approach: order a review. It is a hallmark of his governing style.”
The president used the word “review” 11 times in his brief speech. In his briefing prior to Mr Obama’s speech, Mr Gibbs said “review” 34 times.
The Department of Homeland Security and the Directorate of National Intelligence were created in the wake of the 9/11 attacks to prevent the type of intelligence “screw-ups” that enabled Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to receive a US visa, buy a one-way ticket from Amsterdam to Detroit with cash, check no luggage, then try to detonate hidden explosives.
The CIA in Lagos had relayed a warning by Abdulmutallab’s father to the National Counterterrorism Centre, but no connection was made to intercepts indicating that al-Qaeda planned to use a Nigerian trained in Yemen for an attack.