Obama: U.S. Knew of Nigerian Terror Threat but Did Not Act

Wednesday, 30 Dec 2009 10:52 AM
By: Jim Meyers

President Obama has acknowledged that the United States had early signals that a terrorist attack was being plotted in Yemen and failed to take adequate steps to prevent it.

According to a page one story in the New York Times, two federal officials told the paper that U.S. intelligence was aware that a Nigerian Muslim was preparing an attack, yet officials did nothing to give warning of such an attack.

The paper reported Wednesday: "Two officials said the government had intelligence from Yemen before Friday that leaders of a branch of Al Qaeda were talking about 'a Nigerian' being prepared for a terrorist attack."

Although the attacker was not named, officials said his identity would have been evident had it been compared with information about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian charged with trying to blow up an American passenger jet on Christmas Day.

But despite those signals, the administration never raised a terror alert, and would-be bomber Abdulmutallab was allowed to board a plane bound for the United States.

Critics also have charged that, although al-Qaida has engaged in multiple terror attacks at the same time and has promised more attacks soon, the administration has yet to raise Homeland Security's terror threat level. It remains at "yellow" or "elevated" — as it has for several years.


Obama was told at a briefing on Tuesday that U.S. officials had information that would have warned clearly of a pending attack if agencies had shared the information, The New York Times reported.

U.S. intelligence learned that leaders of a branch of al-Qaida in Yemen were talking about a Nigerian's being prepared for a terrorist attack.

Abdulmutallab first came to the attention of U.S. officials in November, when his father told the U.S. embassy in Nigeria that his son had expressed radical views and then disappeared.

After being briefed, Obama told reporters: “A systemic failure has occurred, and I consider that totally unacceptable.â€