Free Republic

HONOLULU (AP) - President Barack Obama was briefed Thursday on how a 23-year-old Nigerian with suspected terrorist ties almost succeeded in a Christmas Day airline bombing and how to prevent it from happening again. Obama received the preliminary assessment ahead of meetings in Washington next week on fixing the shortcomings and failures of the nation's anti-terrorism policy. Administration officials said the system to protect the nation's skies from terrorists was deeply flawed and, even then, the government failed to follow its own directives. Vacationing in Hawaii, Obama talked with the his national security team about progress they were making on...

The Obama administration is scurrying to implement new procedures to find and keep potential terrorists off U.S.-bound planes, as results of a preliminary intelligence review flow into the White House. Emerging as a central focus are deficiencies in the U.S.'s network of watch lists, a system designed after the Sept. 11 attacks to keep tabs on potential terrorists and prevent them from boarding planes, according to a senior U.S. counterterrorism official. The official noted that government audits turned up problems in recent years, including gaps that kept suspected terrorists from being added to the U.S.'s no-fly list. President Barack Obama...