He said U.S. intelligence officials were warned
weeks ago about the Nigerian man alleged to have tried to blow up a
U.S.-bound flight on
The president called the situation “totally unacceptable.”
Meanwhile, Senate Democrats, who were unable to get the president’s nominee to lead the
In his second straight day of remarks from
where his family is vacationing, Obama sought to put to rest early
criticism that he wasn’t responding forcefully enough or that he and
top administration officials were trying to gloss over what could have
been a catastrophic event had the explosive not failed and passengers
not intervened. Obama reiterated that thorough reviews of the
government’s human and systemic errors are under way.
Acknowledging reports that the father of suspect
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had contacted U.S. officials to warn them of
his son’s extremist views, Obama said, “It now appears that weeks ago
this information was passed to a component of our intelligence
community but was not effectively distributed so as to get the
suspect’s name on a no-fly list.”
He said there were other “bits of information” that “could have and should have been pieced together.”
Had the system worked, Obama said, “a fuller,
clearer picture of the suspect would have emerged. The warning signs
would have triggered red flags, and the suspect would have never been
allowed to board that plane for America.”
“We’ve achieved much since 9/11 in terms of
collecting information that relates to terrorists and potential
terrorist attacks, but it’s becoming clear that the system that has
been in place for years now is not sufficiently up-to-date to take full
advantage of the information we collect and the knowledge we have.”
behind the president’s remarks, such as which “component” of the U.S.
intelligence community dropped the ball related to the father’s
warning, and which other details should have been pieced together.
From his home state of
returns from its current recess, he would file a cloture motion to
limit debate and move to a roll-call vote on the nomination of
Sen.
had held up Southers’ confirmation earlier this month when Democrats
sought to approve him by consent. The cloture process can take several
days if those opposing a nominee choose to engage in lengthy debate.
Southers has cleared two
DeMint said Tuesday that Reid had “completely
ignored this nominee for weeks until the recent terror attempt” and was
now grandstanding. DeMint also indicated he was open to a compromise to
limit debate.
“I’m only looking for some time to debate the issue
and have a vote so this isn’t done in secret,” DeMint said in a
statement. He added that he hoped the debate and the alleged terrorism
attempt “will convince Reid and President Obama that we cannot give
union bosses veto power over national security at our airports.”
Reid spokesman
DeMint was being “petty and vindictive” and that “he can’t have his
cake and eat it, too. The fact is he objected to us confirming this
nominee. The one who’s grandstanding is Senator DeMint.”
Southers is the
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(c) 2009, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
