WASHINGTON — President Obama took responsibility for the botched Christmas Day bombing aboard a Detroit-bound flight yesterday, saying that he plans to boost security measures in order to keep Americans safe.
“Ultimately, the buck stops with me,” Obama told reporters during a White House announcement.
During a top-level bunker meeting on Tuesday with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and others, Obama impressed upon them the importance of a full and thorough review of what allowed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian who trained with al Qaeda in Yemen, to slip past security with a simple, yet potentially devastating, bomb in his underwear.
“We cannot sit on information that will protect the American people,” said Obama.
The president also said intelligence agencies “must follow the leads we get and pursue them until plots are disrupted” so that there is a stronger process for analyzing and processing potential threats.
Obama also ordered the agencies to move faster and more accurately in adding suspects to a watch list designed to stop terrorists before they strike.
The president also said that the Dec. 25 incident was not the fault of any single person and that no one would be fired over it.
During his outline of new measures, Obama said tips would be assigned to specific individuals within the US intelligence community.
Obama also said that the issuance of Visas, like the one Abdulmutallab had, would be reviewed.
A tough-talking Obama also added that the US will never bow to “siege mentality” while stiffening defenses against al-Qaeda.
As part of the ongoing security review, he said he would be regularly briefed by Deputy National Security adviser John Brennan.