Obama Shoulders Blame for Intel Lapse
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during a press conference in Istanbul June 7, 2012. / AFP/Getty Images
President Barack Obama declared Thursday "the buck stops with me" for the nation's security, taking responsibility for failures that led to the near-disastrous Christmas attack on a Detroit-bound airliner and vowing the problems would be corrected. He said the lapses were widespread but suggested no officials would be fired.
Mr. Obama didn't tell intelligence officials to dramatically change what they're doing. Instead, he told them to do it better, and faster. He left it to them to figure out how.
Clearly aware of the potential political fallout, Mr. Obama struck a tough tone toward the anti-terror fight, taking the rare step - for him - of calling it a "war."
The president announced a series of steps he says will help intelligence officials connect the dots and prevent breakdowns like the one on Christmas Day. The new measures include: assigning responsibility for investigating leads on high priority threats, wider and faster distribution of intelligence reports, strengthening sharing of intelligence and expanding the number people on watch lists - especially the no-fly list, reports CBS News White House correspondent Chip Reid.
Summary of White House Review
Directive from President Obama
The administration is also adding more air marshals to flights. Hundreds of law enforcement officers from Homeland Security Department agencies are being trained and deployed to the federal Air Marshal Service, said a government official familiar with the strategy.
There are more than 4,000 federal air marshals, while about 29,000 domestic and international flights take place in the U.S. each day.
In the president's bleak assessment and a White House-released report about what went wrong, the country got an alarming picture of a post-Sept. 11 debacle: an intelligence community that failed to understand what it had.
FBI in Ghana to Track Abdulmutallab's Steps
U.S. intelligence officials had enough information to identify the suspect as an al Qaeda terrorist operative and keep him off a plane but still could not identify and disrupt the plot, and security measures didn't catch him, either.
"It's a big problem and it requires a fairly big solution," former Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte told CBS' "The Early Show" Friday.
Negroponte, who served under George W. Bush, said the Obama administration was handling the situation well. "It's a question of tweaking the system," he said.
Special Report: The Christmas Day Terror Attack
Mr. Obama announced about a dozen changes designed to fix that, including new terror watch list guidelines, wider and quicker distribution of intelligence reports, stronger analysis of those reports, international partnerships and an interagency effort to develop next-generation airport screening technologies.
More on Obama's Remarks and the Report:
Obama Commands Intel Community to Do Better
John Brennan: I Told Leiter to Take Leave
Brennan: Yemen's Al Qaeda Is "Lethal" and "Concerning"
Transcript: Obama on Intelligence Failures
Full Obama Video
Analysis from CBS News' Bob Schieffer and Bob Orr
More inquiries are on the way.
"It is appalling that we have not learned from our mistakes, eight years after the worst terror attacks in our nation's history," said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which will hold its first hearing on the subject on Jan. 21, probably in private.
While Mr. Obama promised improved security, his solutions were laced with bureaucratic reshuffling.
Americans might be surprised that the government was not already taking some of the steps Mr. Obama ordered. For instance, he directed the intelligence community to begin assigning direct responsibility for following up leads on high-priority threats.
Mr. Obama himself hinted at the difficulties of improving intelligence and security against a terrorist network that devises new methods as fast or faster than the U.S. can come up with defenses.
"There is, of course, no foolproof solution," he said. "We have to stay one step ahead of a nimble adversary."
He spoke from the State Dining Room at the White House, his remarks delayed twice as officials scrambled to declassify a six-page summary of a report he'd ordered from top officials on the security failures. That summary was released immediately after he spoke, as was Mr. Obama's three-page directive to agency chiefs.
"When the system fails, it is my responsibility," Mr. Obama said.
The White House is anxious to resolve and move beyond the issue, which threatens to damage the president politically and distract further from his agenda.
Republicans have pointed to the attack and Mr. Obama's handling of it to criticize him as weak on national security - a perennial election-season charge against Democrats that has sometimes been effective in the past. His language Thursday was strong.
"We are at war, we are at war against al Qaeda," he said. "We will do whatever it takes to defeat them."
The unclassified summary stated that U.S. intelligence officials had received unspecified "discrete pieces of intelligence" to identify Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian, as an al Qaeda operative and keep him off the flight from Amsterdam. Officials received fragments of information as early as October, according to the report.
Earlier Thursday, the administration said Abdulmutallab was flagged for extra screening after he was already on the plane and headed for Detroit. The Department of Homeland Security said his potential ties to extremists came up in a routine check of passengers en route to the U.S. - and not because of any suddenly gathered intelligence that emerged during the flight.
Although intelligence officials knew that an al Qaeda operative in Yemen posed a threat to U.S. security, they did not increase their focus on that threat and did not pull together fragments of data needed to foil the scheme, said the summary.
Still, the report concludes, "The watch listing system is not broken" and a reorganization of the nation's counterterrorism system is not necessary. The report, instead, calls for strengthening the process used to add suspected terrorists to watch lists.
According to the report, "a series of human errors" occurred, including a delay in the dissemination of a completed intelligence report and the failure of CIA and counterterrorism officers to search all available databases for information that could have been tied to Abdulmutallab.
Unlike the run-up to the 2001 terrorist attacks, intelligence officials did share information. But authorities didn't understand what they had.
The president seemed to settle the question of whom to blame by declaring that blame was shared by many.
"Now at this stage in the review process, it appears that this incident was not the fault of a single individual or organization, but rather a systemic failure across organizations and agencies," he said.
He ordered all involved agency heads to set up internal accountability units to review efforts to make changes. "We will measure progress," he said.
Underscoring Mr. Obama's assertion that no one individual was responsible for failing to thwart the attack, the administration's report noted that Abdulmutallab's name was misspelled in one instance, leading the State Department to conclude he did not have a valid U.S. visa - when in fact he did. Even so, the report said steps to revoke his visa could have occurred only if other intelligence information had been coordinated and he was placed on a more restrictive watch list.
Abdulmutallab was indicted Wednesday on charges of attempted murder and other crimes in the airline incident.
Meanwhile on Thursday, many airlines were re-briefing employees on security procedures, from baggage handlers to pilots.
"Everybody is being reminded of what the rules of the road are," said Jack Casey, an aviation safety consultant in Washington.
There's a limit, though, to how much airlines can do on their own, said Casey, a former airline pilot. "They're waiting for better guidance from everybody in government over this whole issue of profiling and the issue of privacy. That's a big gray area."
CBS/ AP Mr. Obama didn't tell intelligence officials to dramatically change what they're doing. Instead, he told them to do it better, and faster. He left it to them to figure out how.
Clearly aware of the potential political fallout, Mr. Obama struck a tough tone toward the anti-terror fight, taking the rare step - for him - of calling it a "war."
The president announced a series of steps he says will help intelligence officials connect the dots and prevent breakdowns like the one on Christmas Day. The new measures include: assigning responsibility for investigating leads on high priority threats, wider and faster distribution of intelligence reports, strengthening sharing of intelligence and expanding the number people on watch lists - especially the no-fly list, reports CBS News White House correspondent Chip Reid.
Summary of White House Review
Directive from President Obama
The administration is also adding more air marshals to flights. Hundreds of law enforcement officers from Homeland Security Department agencies are being trained and deployed to the federal Air Marshal Service, said a government official familiar with the strategy.
There are more than 4,000 federal air marshals, while about 29,000 domestic and international flights take place in the U.S. each day.
In the president's bleak assessment and a White House-released report about what went wrong, the country got an alarming picture of a post-Sept. 11 debacle: an intelligence community that failed to understand what it had.
FBI in Ghana to Track Abdulmutallab's Steps
U.S. intelligence officials had enough information to identify the suspect as an al Qaeda terrorist operative and keep him off a plane but still could not identify and disrupt the plot, and security measures didn't catch him, either.
"It's a big problem and it requires a fairly big solution," former Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte told CBS' "The Early Show" Friday.
Negroponte, who served under George W. Bush, said the Obama administration was handling the situation well. "It's a question of tweaking the system," he said.
Special Report: The Christmas Day Terror Attack
Mr. Obama announced about a dozen changes designed to fix that, including new terror watch list guidelines, wider and quicker distribution of intelligence reports, stronger analysis of those reports, international partnerships and an interagency effort to develop next-generation airport screening technologies.
More on Obama's Remarks and the Report:
Obama Commands Intel Community to Do Better
John Brennan: I Told Leiter to Take Leave
Brennan: Yemen's Al Qaeda Is "Lethal" and "Concerning"
Transcript: Obama on Intelligence Failures
Full Obama Video
Analysis from CBS News' Bob Schieffer and Bob Orr
More inquiries are on the way.
"It is appalling that we have not learned from our mistakes, eight years after the worst terror attacks in our nation's history," said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which will hold its first hearing on the subject on Jan. 21, probably in private.
While Mr. Obama promised improved security, his solutions were laced with bureaucratic reshuffling.
Americans might be surprised that the government was not already taking some of the steps Mr. Obama ordered. For instance, he directed the intelligence community to begin assigning direct responsibility for following up leads on high-priority threats.
Mr. Obama himself hinted at the difficulties of improving intelligence and security against a terrorist network that devises new methods as fast or faster than the U.S. can come up with defenses.
"There is, of course, no foolproof solution," he said. "We have to stay one step ahead of a nimble adversary."
He spoke from the State Dining Room at the White House, his remarks delayed twice as officials scrambled to declassify a six-page summary of a report he'd ordered from top officials on the security failures. That summary was released immediately after he spoke, as was Mr. Obama's three-page directive to agency chiefs.
"When the system fails, it is my responsibility," Mr. Obama said.
The White House is anxious to resolve and move beyond the issue, which threatens to damage the president politically and distract further from his agenda.
Republicans have pointed to the attack and Mr. Obama's handling of it to criticize him as weak on national security - a perennial election-season charge against Democrats that has sometimes been effective in the past. His language Thursday was strong.
"We are at war, we are at war against al Qaeda," he said. "We will do whatever it takes to defeat them."
The unclassified summary stated that U.S. intelligence officials had received unspecified "discrete pieces of intelligence" to identify Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian, as an al Qaeda operative and keep him off the flight from Amsterdam. Officials received fragments of information as early as October, according to the report.
Earlier Thursday, the administration said Abdulmutallab was flagged for extra screening after he was already on the plane and headed for Detroit. The Department of Homeland Security said his potential ties to extremists came up in a routine check of passengers en route to the U.S. - and not because of any suddenly gathered intelligence that emerged during the flight.
Although intelligence officials knew that an al Qaeda operative in Yemen posed a threat to U.S. security, they did not increase their focus on that threat and did not pull together fragments of data needed to foil the scheme, said the summary.
Still, the report concludes, "The watch listing system is not broken" and a reorganization of the nation's counterterrorism system is not necessary. The report, instead, calls for strengthening the process used to add suspected terrorists to watch lists.
According to the report, "a series of human errors" occurred, including a delay in the dissemination of a completed intelligence report and the failure of CIA and counterterrorism officers to search all available databases for information that could have been tied to Abdulmutallab.
Unlike the run-up to the 2001 terrorist attacks, intelligence officials did share information. But authorities didn't understand what they had.
The president seemed to settle the question of whom to blame by declaring that blame was shared by many.
"Now at this stage in the review process, it appears that this incident was not the fault of a single individual or organization, but rather a systemic failure across organizations and agencies," he said.
He ordered all involved agency heads to set up internal accountability units to review efforts to make changes. "We will measure progress," he said.
Underscoring Mr. Obama's assertion that no one individual was responsible for failing to thwart the attack, the administration's report noted that Abdulmutallab's name was misspelled in one instance, leading the State Department to conclude he did not have a valid U.S. visa - when in fact he did. Even so, the report said steps to revoke his visa could have occurred only if other intelligence information had been coordinated and he was placed on a more restrictive watch list.
Abdulmutallab was indicted Wednesday on charges of attempted murder and other crimes in the airline incident.
Meanwhile on Thursday, many airlines were re-briefing employees on security procedures, from baggage handlers to pilots.
"Everybody is being reminded of what the rules of the road are," said Jack Casey, an aviation safety consultant in Washington.
There's a limit, though, to how much airlines can do on their own, said Casey, a former airline pilot. "They're waiting for better guidance from everybody in government over this whole issue of profiling and the issue of privacy. That's a big gray area."
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'The system works' ... er, no it was 'systemic and human error' ... no, wait a minute it's 'the buck stops with me' yeah that's ticket.
Why should all airport passengers be deemed as likely terrorists when we already know who the enemy is and it certainly isn't grandma, grandpa or the tots.
==================================================================
Who exactly is the enemy? Do we profile only people with Muslim sounding names? If we do that, they could just as easily change their names or recruit people with names like Richard Reid, Jose Padilla or John Walker Lindh.
If you read Juan Cole's articles in Salon.com, you'd know that two days after the abortive underwear bomber attack, the US military launched a raid in a village Kunar province, killing 10 civilians,. including school children. A NATO missile strike also killed more civilians including children. On January 4, hundreds of university students in Kabul and Jalalbad staged anti-American demonstrations. Just as the underwear bomber received 24 hour news cycle overage, Arab Media outlets broadcast these stories over and over again. These incidents will strengthen, not weaken, the image of al Qaeda as the liberators of the Islamic world.
The blank check we have given Israel has encouraged Israeli settlers to vandalize Palestinian farms and property. This also strengthens al Qaeda.
.
According to a current article in Der Spiegel, Wahhabists in Saudi Arabia, funded by oil revenues, are building mosques and Koranic schools not only in sub-Saharan Africa, but also in Bosnia, where fundamentalist versions of Islam are getting a new lease on life. These Wahhabist institutions in turn become future recruiting grounds for terrorists. The longer the world depends on oil as its major source of energy, the more money terrorists will receive.
Although the GOP insists that global warming is a myth, global warming is already wreaking havoc in parts of Africa and Bangladesh. Rising sea levels will also threaten many regions of Indonesia where extremist Islamic movements are taking root. The people in these areas will blame the United States for their suffering. And rightly so. This too will increase the number of terrorists.
The GOP definitely gets political points by branding President Obama as a Muslim, but the GOP also reinforces the image that the United States hates Muslims, regardless of their views on terrorism. As a result, no leader in the Islamic worlds will want to enter an alliance with the United States against al Qaeda because of the political consequences, basically generated by America's hatred of Islam
The GOP does not understand that our military options are limited, especially if al Qaeda is capable of expanding operations throughout the Islamic world. We do not understand that our military presence in the Islamic world is totally unacceptable and that alone will recruit terrorists faster than we can kill them.
Worse, we are re-deploying our troops over and over again. These constant redeployments will devastate our military, not only with an increasing toll of deaths and disabling injuries, but with an increasing toll of psychological injuries, that we conveniently want to hide. Our war on terrorism will cannibalize our GNP and decimate our military.
I have yet to hear the GOP say anything about any of these issues, yet they are issues we must face. The GOP shows an unbridled contempt for the people of the Islamic world and for their religion. In this sense, the GOP is a godsend to al Qaeda, because they unwittingly provide al Qaeda with the hate America propaganda they need. If the GOP gets in power, there is no way that America will win the war on terrorism. The GOP's attitude that they want Obama to fail and that they want America to fail will indeed become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
How quickly we forget that Bin Laden's initial parting of company with the US Government was over the Clinton administration's / Sandy Berger's bane attempt to build a pipeline across Afghanistan, which Bin Laden and his in-country Taliban cronies (rightfully) fought.
But all the ills and evils of the world are the fault of the US GOP party?
You need to get out more.
AWWWW!
When Bush's lies were exposed, he blamed bad intel. When prisoners were raped and tortured for sport, he blamed a few 'bad apples.'
Yes indeed! Admitting we are at war should warrant Al-Qaeda operatives to be tried in a military tribunal not civil criminal trial. These enemy combatants should not be given more rights of freedom....
Before you advocate Israeli methods, I'd suggest you read a recent article titled What the TSA needs to do Now by Patrick Smith, in Salon.com. Smith, an airline pilot, points out that Israel's technique works because Israel has one international airport to monitor. We have hundreds of airports. That makes a different.
I'd also like to remind nowhiningalllowed that al Qaida could very well recruit terrorists who look like grandpa and grandma. Richard Reid after all was a British citizen. In addition, if we keep making enemies in the Islamic world faster than we can kill them - there is no way we can get all suspected terrorists on a no fly list.
If we want to win a war against al Qaida, we need to remove the causes, including the blank check we give Israel to wreak mayhem on Palestinians, moderate and militant alike. Since al Qaida is financed by oil revenue from Saudi Arabia, we need to cut the funding source by adopting green technology, including a viable substitute for oil.
True, I agree......figuring out that we are actually in an "Overseas Contingency Operation" a year too late, is better then not at all. Maybe if his anti-terror chiefs would get off the slopes and do their jobs.
Thousands of innocent civilians have been killed in both Iraq and Afghanistan because of "droning and bombing". The media organizations in the Middle East broadcast these deaths - and that, in turn, creates more terrorists. That's precisely the situation that Obama inherited from Bush, who incidentally assumed absolutely no responsibility whatsoever fro 9/11 - even though there was ample warning in August 2001 that such an attack was imminent.
If we are at war, then we need to adopt a war time tax structure. During World War II, the superrich paid an income tax of 88%, more or less. We also rationed gasoline - so with that in mind, we need to institute carbon taxes and cap and trade - so that we can reduce the demand for oil. Bear in mind that al Qaeda gets its funding from oil revenue from Saudi Arabia. If you don't support these measures, then stop claiming we're at war.