- Obama said warning on attempted airplane bomber had not been "effectively distributed."
- U.S. intelligence agencies only added Abdulmutallab's name to a terrorist watch list.
- Human and systemic failures contributed to "potential catastrophic breach of security."
U.S. President Barack Obama gives a statement at the Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe, Hawaii December 29, 2009. Obama said on Tuesday that it was clear a "systemic failure" had occurred in connection with the failed attack on a Detroit-bound passenger plane on Christmas Day.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 -- U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday conceded that the warning on an attempted airplane bomber on the Christmas Day had not been "effectively distributed."
"When our government has information on a known extremist and that information is not shared and acted upon as it should have been so that this extremist boards a plane with dangerous explosives that could have cost nearly 300 lives, a systemic failure has occurred, and I consider that totally unacceptable," Obama said in the second public address after the Christmas Day incident.
A slightly charred and singed underpants with the explosive packet removed from the crotch is seen in government photos obtained exclusively by ABC News, released to Reuters, Dec. 28, 2009.
The statement was issued as the U.S. authorities are further investigating the incidence that a 23-year-old Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, attempted to set off an explosive device attached to his body on a Delta/Northwest flight from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to Detroit, Michigan, on Dec. 25.
U.S. officials have confirmed that Abdulmutallab's father had warned the U.S. embassy in Nigeria last month of his son's radical thoughts and possible activities against the U.S..
The syringe detonator is seen in government photos obtained exclusively by ABC News, released to Reuters, Dec. 28, 2009.
However, the U.S. intelligence agencies only added Abdulmutallab's name to a terrorist watch list that includes names of persons possibly connected to terrorist groups but not automatically subjected to more security screening at airports.
Even without the report by the suspect's father, "there were bits of information available within the intelligence community that could have and should have been pieced together," Obama said.
The president admitted that a mix of human and systemic failures have been shown contributing to "this potential catastrophic breach of security" even though the reviews he ordered are still undergoing.
"We need to learn from this episode and act quickly to fix the flaws in our system because our security is at stake and lives are at stake," he added.
U.S. President Barack Obama gives a statement at the Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe, Hawaii December 29, 2009.
The package of the PETN explosive powder is seen in government photos obtained exclusively by ABC News, released to Reuters, Dec. 28, 2009.
(Reuters)
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