Obama: 'Buck Stops With Me'

'We have to do better, and we will do better'

(AP) - President Obama says the foiled Christmas Day airliner attack exposed "a potentially disastrous" security failure in which the US intelligence community had enough information to connect the dots ahead of time but didn't. The lapse didn't have to do with the collection of information but with the failure to integrate and analyze what was there. "We have to do better, and we will do better and we have to do it quickly." More»

Prez will detail improvements to watch-list system today

(NEWSER) - In the midst of beefing up airport security after the Detroit terror attempt, the US is expanding passenger surveillance lists, adding "probably dozens" of names to the no-fly and watch lists, the White House tells the BBC . The new names have been moved to the lists from TIDE, the vast terrorist information database where intelligence about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab stalled out. More»

Prez gets answers to how Abdulmutallab boarded plane

(NEWSER) - As a first step in his effort to overhaul intelligence practices, President Obama will today receive a preliminary report on how exactly the Detroit bombing suspect managed to board a US-bound plane, along with recommendations on how to prevent a sequel. The reams of intelligence data that were combed through for the report include conversations between Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and an al-Qaeda member that may have referred to the Detroit attack, AP reports. More»

US flights will be scanned with new, modest version within 3 weeks

(AP) - The Netherlands will immediately begin using full body scanners for flights heading to the US, according to an announcement that comes with a report today on the failed Christmas airline bombing. The US opposed their use previously because of privacy concerns, but the Dutch interior minister says that the Obama administration now agrees that "all possible measures will be used." "It is not exaggerating to say the world has escaped a disaster." More»

Most options come with costs Congress, or fliers, find unpalatable

(NEWSER) - The White House is talking tough about airline security after Friday's failed bombing, but many options for tightening up the system are either politically untenable, repugnant to travelers, or both. Josh Gerstein takes a look at a few possibilities, and their likelihood of becoming reality, in Politico .

• Expand the no-fly or stricter-screening lists: Suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was on the larger TIDE watch list of 550,000. Some argue all 550,000 suspicious persons should be subject to more stringent screening. Are you nuts? a Bush official wonders. "You’d have this meltdown." Not likely, Gerstein writes.