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| Obama orders air security review after jet bomb attempt |
| 2009-12-28 |
| US President Barack Obama has ordered a review of air security after a Nigerian man was charged with trying to blow up a transatlantic jet on Christmas Day. Spokesman Robert Gibbs said Mr Obama wanted to know how a man carrying explosives had managed to board a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. Mr Gibbs told ABC News the system of watch-lists used by US government agencies would be examined, after it emerged that the Christmas Day suspect was listed and known to officials. A US record for 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was created last month. The US government uses three watch-lists, which become shorter as risk increases. They include one with some 550,000 names on it, a "selectee" list with 18,000 people within the higher-risk category, and a "no-fly" list with 4,000 names of people who are not allowed to board planes. Mr Gibbs said the number of people on the watch-list was "a huge number". "The president has asked that a review be undertaken to ensure that any information gets to where it needs to go, to the people making the decisions. The president wants to review some of these procedures and see if they need to be updated," he said. Mr Gibbs said "air detection capabilities" would also be examined as part of the review. "The president has asked the Department of Homeland Security to answer the - quite frankly - the very real question about how somebody with something as dangerous as PETN could have gotten onto a plane in Amsterdam." Nigerian authorities, who on Sunday pledged to co-operate with the US investigation, said all passengers passing through the country's 22 airports would be screened. Wealthy or influential people and their families are often allowed to skip checks, media reports say. Speaking to ABC New, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said there was no immediate indication that Mr Abdulmutallab was part of a broader terror plot, but that the investigation was continuing. |
| Posted by:Pappy |
| #4 Coming soon to the White House: Obama's "Air Security Summit". |
| Posted by: DMFD 2009-12-28 13:47 |
| #3 Lucky that our enemies of the Jihadi variety do not read Sun Tzu. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2009-12-28 10:37 |
| #2 I was flying in and out of Reagan back in the day when they did this for that airport. It was a) not a lot of fun; and b) was ignored shortly after. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2009-12-28 09:13 |
| #1 I don't know about the rest of you but I would GLADLY submit to a body scan if it means I can get up and go to the bathroom if I need to. Telling someone that they may not use the restroon for an HOUR prior to landing is just plain NUTS. What if you are delayed in those last few minutes and it turns into two hours? What if your pilots get in an heated discussion and don't realize where they are until you are half way to Albuquerque? Walk me through the body scanner and allow me to pee if I need to, please. Only keep people in their seats if you are prepared to provide them with diapers before the flight. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2009-12-28 00:09 |