From AFP, on the President's address and the subsequent briefing:
President Barack Obama has declared "the buck stops with me" over major intelligence flaws exposed by an Al-Qaeda attack on a US passenger jet and ordered a sweeping homeland security overhaul.
Releasing two reports on the thwarted Christmas Day bombing, Obama said spy agencies did not properly "connect and understand" disparate data that could have busted the plot as it was planned by an Al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen.
He said the probes revealed that US analysts knew alleged attacker Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was an extremist and knew Al-Qaeda in Yemen was plotting an attack -- but could not connect the two strands of intelligence.
And as critics charge his administration is too soft on terror and slow to act after the attack, Obama said the United States is "at war with Al-Qaeda" but promised terrorists would not force Americans to adopt a "siege" mentality.
"I am less interested in passing out blame than I am in learning from and correcting these mistakes to make us safer," Obama said, signaling there would be no immediate firings of top spy chiefs over the security breakdown.
"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."
From the Washington Post, on the use of full body imaging technology:
The United States will urge governments around the world to deploy controversial whole-body imaging scanners at airports to detect explosives and other objects hidden beneath people's clothing, President Obama said Thursday.
The announcement came as Obama and top security aides detailed intelligence failures and responses to aviation security gaps uncovered in the Dec. 25 incident in which a 23-year-old Nigerian man linked to al-Qaeda allegedly tried to blow up an Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight with explosives hidden in his underwear.
On air travel screening, administration officials elaborated on decisions previously announced: ramping up the presence of federal air marshals, for example, particularly on the 2,000 daily U.S.-bound international flights, and buying 300 advanced imaging scanners, as previously planned, to augment 40 already in place and 150 set to be deployed later this year.
Obama called on U.S. intelligence and security communities to strengthen terrorist watch lists, especially the nation's no-fly list, by expanding criteria for people to be included. The president also demanded reviews that could lead to additional travelers being subjected to time-consuming secondary security checks at airports, as well as visa denials and revocations at consulates.
One sensitive debate is whether and how to expand scrutiny at airports beyond the roughly 4,000 people on the U.S. Transportation Security Administration's no-fly list and a "selectee" list of about 14,000 people identified for further questioning, said one senior domestic security official. Alleged Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was never placed on those lists.
There are no public events scheduled for today.
Published by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Washington, D.C.