Wednesday
Jan202010
Intelligence Community Undergoing Overhaul Following Flight 253, Says FBI Director
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 3:44PM
By Benny Martinez - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News
Steps are being taken to improve inter-agency communication and the effectiveness of anti-terrorism tools, U.S. intelligence officials said Wednesday during a hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“Together, with our intelligence community and our law enforcement partners, we will learn from and improve our intelligence systems in response to the Christmas-day attack,” said Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Robert Mueller.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boarded Northwest's 253 flight partly due to a significant failure of the intelligence community, said Under Secretary of Management for the U.S. Department of State, Patrick Kennedy.
“Information about previous visas issued to him and the fact that he currently held a valid U.S. visa was not included” in a Visa Viper report, Kennedy said. As a result, Abdulmutallab was not red-flagged as a person who should be on the 'no fly' terrorist watchlist. “We slipped up,” he said.
According to Mueller, President Barack Obama directed the FBI to review the visa statuses of suspected terrorists on databases at the Terrorist Screening Center. The FBI will also make recommendations towards improving protocols for creating terrorist watchlists.
“As directed by the President,” Mueller said, “the FBI has joined our partners in the intelligence and law enforcement communities to review our information sharing practices and procedures to make sure that such an event never happens again.”
Steps are being taken to improve inter-agency communication and the effectiveness of anti-terrorism tools, U.S. intelligence officials said Wednesday during a hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“Together, with our intelligence community and our law enforcement partners, we will learn from and improve our intelligence systems in response to the Christmas-day attack,” said Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Robert Mueller.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boarded Northwest's 253 flight partly due to a significant failure of the intelligence community, said Under Secretary of Management for the U.S. Department of State, Patrick Kennedy.
“Information about previous visas issued to him and the fact that he currently held a valid U.S. visa was not included” in a Visa Viper report, Kennedy said. As a result, Abdulmutallab was not red-flagged as a person who should be on the 'no fly' terrorist watchlist. “We slipped up,” he said.
According to Mueller, President Barack Obama directed the FBI to review the visa statuses of suspected terrorists on databases at the Terrorist Screening Center. The FBI will also make recommendations towards improving protocols for creating terrorist watchlists.
“As directed by the President,” Mueller said, “the FBI has joined our partners in the intelligence and law enforcement communities to review our information sharing practices and procedures to make sure that such an event never happens again.”
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