President Obama has ordered a review into travel security measures following the failed terrorist attack on Flight 253.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said on ABC’s “This Week,” that Obama has asked for two reviews – into the watch-listing procedures and detection capabilities.
“What the president has asked for as a result of this incident are two look-back reviews,” Gibbs said. “First, on our watch-listing procedures, did the government do everything that it could have with the information that they had? Understanding these procedures are several years old. Did we do what we needed to with that information, and how can we revise watch listing procedures going forward to ensure that there is no clog in the bureaucratic plumbing of information that might be gathered somewhere going to the very highest levels of security in our government.”
Gibbs said Obama has asked the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration to “answer the very real question about how somebody with something as dangerous as PETN could have gotten onto a plane in Amsterdam.”
The aim is to determine steps that can be taken to enhance the ability of airport screeners to detect such materials going forward, administration officials said.
Officials said Obama wants an accounting of all decisions related to the inclusion or not of suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s name in government databases related to known or suspected terrorists.
Administration officials said the reviews should be taken in wake of any similar incidents and don’t imply anyone made any mistakes. The White House wants the reviews to be seen as an ongoing effort to improve security.
“The president is very confident that this government is taking the steps that are necessary to take — to take our fight to those that seek to do us harm,” Gibbs said.
Obama, on his family vacation, received his latest update on the failed terrorist attack at 6 a.m. Hawaii time.
White House spokesman Bill Burton told members of the press covering the president’s vacation that Obama was briefed by Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor John Brennan and National Security Staff chief of staff Denis McDonough.
Burton said Obama received “the latest information regarding the investigation into the incident on Flight 253, the security measures being taken to keep the traveling public safe, the most recent intelligence regarding that incident as well as on the reviews the president ordered into watch lists and detection capabilities.”
“The president will continue to receive intelligence updates and monitor the situation closely throughout the day,” Burton said.
Also appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the government’s systems worked “very, very smoothly” over the last few days.
“I think the important thing to recognize here is that once this incident occurred, everything happened that should have. The passengers reacted correctly, the crew reacted correctly, within an hour to 90 minutes, all 128 flights in the air had been notified. And those flights already had taken mitigation measures on the off-chance that there was somebody else also flying with some sort of destructive intent,” she said.
Gibbs appeared on several Sunday political shows to make the review announcement, and also pointedly noted that Obama is withdrawing troops from Iraq and increasing them in Afghanistan and Pakistan to pressure al Qaeda across the globe.
Late Update: More details on the reviews here.
