President Obama has ordered a review of airport security screening amid questions about how a known extremist whose own father dropped a dime on him to U.S security was able to board a U.S.-bound flight with explosives in his underpants.
"What the President has asked for as a result of this incident are two look-back reviews,"White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Sunday, appearing on Abc-TV' s "This Week" with George Stephanopolos.
"First, on our watch-listing procedures, did the government do everything that it could have with the information that they had?"
Gibbs said the President, who is vacationing in Hawalli, aims "to ensure that there is no clog in the bureaucratic plumbing of information that might be gathered."
Nigerian national Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was charged with trying to detonate an explosive aboard Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day.
Despite warnings from the suspect's powerful father in Nigeria and his name appearing on an American terrorist watch list, Abdulmutallab was not on a "no fly" list, which would have prevented him from boarding the flight.
Gibbs also said the president wants the Department of Homeland Security to "answer they very real question about how somebody with something as dangerous as PETN [explosives] could have gotten onto a plane in Amsterdam."
Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano said Sunday that "everything went according to clockwork" after the attack.
"I think the important thing to recognize here is that once this incident occurred, everything happened that should have," Napolitano told ABC News.
"The authorities in Amsterdam are working with us to make sure that screening was properly done. We have no suggestion that it wasn't, but we're actually going through - going backwards, tracing his route."
Napolitano said there is "no initial evidence" that the attacker was involved in a larger terrorist plot, but authorities are investigation Abdulmutallab's alleged ties toA1 Qaeda.
Authorities in Nigeria said Sunday that Abdulmutallab "sneaked into Nigeria on the 24th of December and left the same day." Abdulmutallab told investigators Saturday he had been in Yemen at an Al Qaeda training camp for a month before the attack.
"What the President has asked for as a result of this incident are two look-back reviews,"White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Sunday, appearing on Abc-TV' s "This Week" with George Stephanopolos.
"First, on our watch-listing procedures, did the government do everything that it could have with the information that they had?"
Gibbs said the President, who is vacationing in Hawalli, aims "to ensure that there is no clog in the bureaucratic plumbing of information that might be gathered."
Nigerian national Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was charged with trying to detonate an explosive aboard Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day.
Despite warnings from the suspect's powerful father in Nigeria and his name appearing on an American terrorist watch list, Abdulmutallab was not on a "no fly" list, which would have prevented him from boarding the flight.
Gibbs also said the president wants the Department of Homeland Security to "answer they very real question about how somebody with something as dangerous as PETN [explosives] could have gotten onto a plane in Amsterdam."
Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano said Sunday that "everything went according to clockwork" after the attack.
"I think the important thing to recognize here is that once this incident occurred, everything happened that should have," Napolitano told ABC News.
"The authorities in Amsterdam are working with us to make sure that screening was properly done. We have no suggestion that it wasn't, but we're actually going through - going backwards, tracing his route."
Napolitano said there is "no initial evidence" that the attacker was involved in a larger terrorist plot, but authorities are investigation Abdulmutallab's alleged ties toA1 Qaeda.
Authorities in Nigeria said Sunday that Abdulmutallab "sneaked into Nigeria on the 24th of December and left the same day." Abdulmutallab told investigators Saturday he had been in Yemen at an Al Qaeda training camp for a month before the attack.
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