Obama takes responsibility for Detroit plot failures (Roundup)

Jan 7, 2010, 23:36 GMT

Washington - US President Barack Obama said Thursday he accepts responsibility for failures to uncover the December 25 plot to blow up a US airliner, promising to strengthen cooperation within the intelligence community and improve airport security screening.

Obama said the United States would do 'whatever it takes' to defeat the terrorist group al-Qaeda, but said the United States must remain true to its values as it guards against threats to the country.

'We will strengthen our defenses, but we will not succumb to a siege mentality that sacrifices the open society and liberties and values that we cherish as Americans,' Obama said in a speech at the White House.

His remarks came as the White House released an initial inquiry into intelligence failures that prevented the US from stopping the suspect, 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, from boarding a flight on Christmas Day in Amsterdam and trying to detonate an explosive as the airliner neared its scheduled landing in Detroit.

Abdulmutallab is to be arraigned Friday in a federal court in Detroit, facing six criminal charges relating to the plot that could bring a sentence of life in prison.

Obama said the inquiry documented how the US 'failed to connect the dots in a way that would have prevented a known terrorist from boarding a plane for America, and the steps we're going to take to prevent that from happening again,' Obama said.

The declassified review finds that the intelligence community had 'sufficient information' to have disrupted the plot, but no single agency or individual was able to pull all the threads together.

There was information that al-Qaeda in Yemen was plotting an attack against the United States, while Abdulmutallab's father in November had warned the US embassy in Nigeria that he believed his son had become radicalized.

Among the changes, the intelligence community will more clearly assign responsibility for evaluating specific plots against the United States. Airport screening procedures will be improved, along with the country's system of terrorism watch lists.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said she would meet with her European counterparts later this month in Spain to discuss how to strengthen airport screening internationally.

Obama did not call for any specific resignations as a result of the failed plot, saying the failures were 'systemic' and not the fault of any 'single individual.'

'Ultimately, the buck stops with me,' he said. 'As president, I have a solemn responsibility to protect our nation and our people, and when the system fails, it is my responsibility.'