Obama: Attempted Attack On Flight 253 Shows ‘Systemic Failure’ That Is ‘Totally Unacceptable’

President Obama
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President Obama made a follow-up statement today regarding the attempted attack on Flight 253, saying that the attack shows a “systemic failure” that is “totally unacceptable.”

In his remarks, Obama first reiterated that he has called for two reviews of U.S. homeland security systems, including the terrorist watch list and the airport screening process. “It’s essential that we diagnose the problems quickly,” he said, “and deal with them immediately.”

He continued that information that has since surfaced raises “serious concerns” about our intelligence community, like reports that “the father of the suspect in the Christmas incident warned us officials in Africa about his son’s extremist views. it now appears that weeks ago this info 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.”

This, said Obama, makes it “clear that the system that’s been in place for years now is not sufficiently up to date.”

“When our government has information on a known extremist and that information is not shared and acted upon as it should have been,” Obama said, then it is evident “a systemic failure has occurred and I consider that totally unacceptable.”

He concluded that he will “insist on accountability at every level. That’s the spirit guiding our reviews into the attempted attack on Christmas day. That’s the spirit that will guide all our efforts and the days and years ahead.”

Here’s the full audio:

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