Detroit bomber was on 'watch lists' in both Britain and US
An armed policeman patrols Gatwick Airport in London yesterday - airport security has been stepped up since Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to detonate a bomb
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Security agencies in Britain and America were under pressure last night to explain how the Detroit bomber was able to board an aircraft with explosives despite being on intelligence 'watch lists' in both countries.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (23) had been banned from entering Britain after he applied for a student visa in May to study at a bogus college, Alan Johnson, Britain's home secretary, confirmed.
Six weeks ago, his family in Nigeria contacted American security officials with concerns that he had become radicalised after "disappearing" to the al-Qa'ida stronghold of Yemen. As a result, he was put on a US anti-terrorism database.
The two countries failed to share their intelligence, however, meaning that neither had a full picture of Abdulmutallab, who hid an explosive device under his clothing and tried to detonate it as an Airbus with 289 people on board approached Detroit airport on Christmas Day. He later told US investigators: "There are more like me who will strike soon."
Trained
Dozens of Islamic militants from Britain are thought to have travelled to Yemen in recent months, where it is thought they were trained by al-Qa'ida bomb-makers.
Last night, a group calling itself al-Qa'ida claimed responsibility for the attempted suicide bombing on Northwest Airlines flight 253.
In an earlier statement, it had vowed to take revenge for US-backed military operations carried out by the Yemeni government earlier this month, in which it claimed 50 people died. The statement read: "We will not let Muslim women and children's blood be spilled without taking revenge."
Abdulmutallab, the privately educated son of one of Nigeria's most prominent bankers, smuggled his bomb aboard the aircraft by strapping a condom filled with the high explosive PETN to the inside of his leg and then attempting to detonate it using a syringe filled with a liquid chemical. The powder caught fire but did not explode.
Investigators are worried that al-Qa'ida has developed a bomb that cannot be detected by scanners in use at most airports, which only locate metal objects.
President Barack Obama interrupted a family holiday in Hawaii yesterday to break his three-day silence on the attack. "We will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable," he said.
Janet Napolitano, the US homeland security chief, admitted that America's counter-terrorism system had failed, because Abdulmutallab, who had been placed on an intelligence database, should not have been allowed to board the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.
"Our system did not work in this instance. No one is happy with that. An extensive review is under way," she said.
Mr Johnson suggested initially that Britain's information about Abdulmutallab would have been shared with America. However, the Home Office admitted later that the intelligence was not passed on.
Patrick Mercer, chairman of the House of Commons counter-terrorism subcommittee, said: "The relationship between British and US intelligence agencies ... doesn't seem to have done its job on this occasion." (©Daily Telegraph, London)
- Duncan Gardham and Gordon Rayner
Irish Independent
