US News

Dutch inquiry finds failed jet attack was ‘amateurish’

The Dutch government said Wednesday that the failed Christmas Day plane bomb attack was “fairly professional” but “executed in an amateur way.”

Interior Minister Guusje Ter Horst told a news conference in The Hague that 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab passed through all regular security checks, including presenting his passport for inspection, before boarding the Northwest Airlines flight for Detroit. He had waited for several hours at the airport after arriving from Lagos, Nigeria. The American authorities cleared the passenger list, including Abdulmutallab’s name.

“No suspicious matters which would give reason to classify the person involved as a high-risk passenger were identified during the security check,” she said.

Ter Horst said no security was ever “watertight” but announced that the use of body scanners would become mandatory at Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport for all flights to the United States, and fully operational within three weeks. Previous plans to make the body scanners available exclusively for passengers flying to the U.S. had been scrapped following American pressure to do so, she said.

Ter Horst went on to refute media speculation that Abdulmutallab was known to security services in the Netherlands; in stark contrast to authorities in the U.S. who admitted receiving warnings about the Nigerian.

President Barack Obama acknowledged Tuesday that a ‘systemic failure’ occurred to allow the suspected underwear bomber to almost detonate his explosives.

“It is becoming clear that the system that has been in place for years is not sufficiently up to date,” Obama said.

Obama addressed the fact that the suspect’s father had passed on warnings about his son to American officials, saying this information was passed on but ‘not effectively distributed’ and that this information ‘could have and should have been pieced together.’

When questioned about Obama’s comments, Ter Horst replied, “It doesn’t mean he can overrule over procedures we have here (in Amsterdam).”

“We did not know he (Abdulmutallab) was part of the U.S. security list. In the U.S. there are several types of lists and they do not always overlap each other. Actually, maybe there should be just one list globally which would alert you when a person should not be travelling.”

“We also rely on what the U.S. gives us as a guideline for security. In conjunction with them, this needs to be tackled in a different way.”

Abdulmutallab allegedly smuggled explosives onto the plane but failed to successfully detonate the improvised device. President Obama has demanded a report by Thursday on the attack.