Washington, January 08: President Obama has accepted responsibility for improving airline security after a series of safety failures that allowed an alleged bomber to board a US plane.
“Ultimately, the buck stops with me,” Obama declared in a televised speech on Thursday.
Obama also said that he wanted the intelligence community to assign “clear lines of responsibility” for immediately pursuing leads on those threats.
Obama called for four steps including better analysis to strengthen the criteria used to add individuals to no-fly list.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, has been charged with attempted murder and other crimes in connection with the airline incident.
Authorities said he smuggled a device onto the Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day.
The device was ignited but did not detonate. Passengers and crew managed to subdue Abdulmutallab, and the plane landed safely.
——-Agencies