US President Barack Obama said US intelligence agencies missed “red flags” that would have put a Nigerian man on a no-fly list before Christmas Day, when he is accused of trying to blow up an airliner.
The government failed to heed warnings that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab could pose a terrorist threat even after his father came to US authorities with his concerns, the president said yesterday.
“The warning signs would have triggered red flags and the suspect would have never been allowed to board that plane for America,” Obama said at a US military base near the home in Hawaii where he is vacationing with his family.
Obama said he expects preliminary results tomorrow from investigations he ordered into the “systemic failure” in aviation security and terrorist intelligence gathering. Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian, is charged with smuggling explosives onto a Northwest Airlines jet and trying to blow up the plane as it prepared to land in Detroit. The full investigation could take weeks.
Obama decided to speak yesterday after an intelligence briefing where he was told the government had information on terrorist planning and potential attacks that if taken together might have pointed to the incident last Friday, an official said on condition of anonymity.
The CIA learned about Abdulmutallab last month, when his father went to the US embassy in Nigeria to seek help in finding him, agency spokesman George Little said in an e-mail. The agency worked to ensure he was in the government terrorist database “including mention of his possible extremist connections in Yemen,” Little said.
Without mentioning the CIA, Obama said: “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.”
The New York Times quoted two unidentified officials as saying the US had information from Yemen that leaders of an al-Qaeda branch were talking about a Nigerian being prepared for an attack.
“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,” Obama said.
Meanwhile, the Netherlands said it would start using full-body scanners in the wake of the failed attack. The preparation of the attempt was “fairly professional,” while the execution was “amateurish,” Dutch Interior Minister Guusje ter Horst wrote in a letter to parliament yesterday, citing a government investigation.
“It will take three weeks to modify the scanners to ensure passengers’ privacy,” ter Horst said at a press conference in The Hague.
The Netherlands plans to use millimeter-wave body scans, which scan the outline of a person’s body, on all flights to the US to reduce terrorist threats, Dutch public broadcaster NOS reported, citing an interview with Justice.
Separately, US and Yemeni officials were looking at fresh targets for a possible retaliation strike in Yemen, CNN reported on Tuesday, citing two unidentified US officials.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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