U.S. President Barack Obama struck out at the intelligence community Tuesday, saying the country's security system failed in a "potentially disastrous way" in the failed Christmas Day plot to bring down a passenger jet landing in Detroit.
"The United States government had sufficient information to stop this plot but the intelligence community failed to connect the dots," a fiery Obama said in a short speech from the White House late Tuesday afternoon.
"The information was there . . . (it is) increasingly clear intelligence was not fully analyzed or leveraged."
Obama was outlining his administration's response to the security failure and said he would not accept excuses for any failures.
"We will do better," he promised.
"Al Qaeda and its allies will stop at nothing in its efforts to kill Americans."
Obama met with his national security team Tuesday in the Situation Room and said he made it clear that he expected initial reviews completed by the end of this week and reforms to be implemented soon after.
Obama had ordered reviews on airline passenger screening and the watch-list systems following the Christmas Day incident.
Already, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration has ordered airlines to give full-body, pat-down searches to U.S. bound travellers from 14 countries including, Yemen, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia.
Washington has also added dozens of names to its lists of suspected terrorists and those barred from U.S.-bound flights.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian is accused of sewing an explosive device into his underwear and then trying to ignite it on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. He was later subdued by flight staff and passengers.
During his speech, Obama reiterated his intention to close Guantanamo Bay, saying it was a security threat to the United States as it is used as a recruitment tool for al Qaeda and other terror organizations.
But he said detainees would not be sent to Yemen until their security situation there is under control. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is based in the country and has taken credit for the foiled bomb plot.
"We will close the prison in a manner that keeps the American people secure." Obama said.
