HONOLULU – President Barack Obama’s security teams briefed the vacationing president on threats facing the United States and he directed that heightened airport security measures remain in place as officials investigate a failed terror attack aboard a Detroit-bound plane.
Officials, meanwhile, pondered a formal inquiry into what changes might be needed for U.S. intelligence operations that allowed the suspect to be purged from a massive and broad government database of potential threats.
White House officials began their Saturday at 4 a.m. in Hawaii — 9 a.m. on the clock in Washington — to prepare with counterparts across the government a briefing for Obama. National Security Council chief of staff Denis McDonough in Hawaii, homeland security and counterterrorism adviser John Brennan and others in Washington spoke with Obama at 6:20 a.m. by secure telephone conference call at the first family’s rented vacation home.
Regular updates were sent to the president, who — despite being on holiday — made decisions to continue increased security precautions he put in place after Friday’s incident.
As Obama spent more than six hours on a Marine Corps golf course, his national security and policy advisers asked each other and peers questions such as: How is the intelligence community integrating itself? The Justice Department on Saturday charged that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab willfully attempted to destroy or wreck an aircraft; and that he placed a destructive device in the plane.
Abdulmutallab claimed to have been instructed by al-Qaida to detonate the plane over U.S. soil, said a U.S. law enforcement official. The plane landed in Detroit at 11:53 a.m. EST. Officials said Obama was briefed on the incident — initially thought to be firecrackers — more than two hours later.

Click here to read more

YAHOO!

RELATED VIDEOS

RELATED BLOGS

So what, exactly, do our homeland security people do all day …
So what, exactly, do our homeland security people do all day? Jump to Comments. Father of plane terrorist reported him to the U.S. Embassy six months ago. In Nigeria, retired bank executive Alhaji Umaru Mutallab told The Associated …
BBCW: Homeland Security Fails in Northwest/Delta to Detroit …
The Department of Homeland Security relaxed their alerts for the holiday season according to My Way. Both the FBI and Homeland Security issued an intelligence release on November 20, 2009, about the threat picture for the holiday season …
Tenured Radical: Memo To Department Of Homeland Security: You Suck
Memo To Department Of Homeland Security: You Suck. We are reading very little news from the United States while in South Africa, particularly since (thanks to my least favorite senator since Jesse Helms, Joe Lieberman) the health care …
Homeland Security to Stockpile 200 Million Rounds of Pistol Ammo
Don’t get us wrong. Here at SHTF Plan we strongly support emergency and disaster preparation, as well as TEOTWAWKI scenario planning, but 200 million rounds of pistol ammo?
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano issues statement …
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano issues statement regarding terrorist attack on Flight 253.
The Starving Bloggist: Homeland Security
Homeland Security. A muslim terrorist from Nigeria tried to blow up Northwest Flight 253 as it prepared to land in Detroit, Michigan just before noon yesterday. The Airbus 330 was flying from Nigeria to Amsterdam to Detroit and had …

Blog Traffic Exchange Related Posts Blog Traffic Exchange Related Websites

Tagged with: • • • • •

Filed under: News

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!