President Obama, saying the “buck stops with me” when it comes to protecting the U.S. from terrorists, ordered stepped up aviation security and released a declassified report on intelligence failures behind the near-catastrophic Christmas Day attack in Detroit, says USA Today.
Under the directives issued yesterday, airline passengers will face more pat-downs and many more will be put through body-scanning machines while counterterrorism officials revamp the government’s terrorist watch lists and establish clearer lines of accountability to follow intelligence leads about plots. Obama told the State Department to review its policies of issuing visas to make sure known terrorists or extremists aren’t granted permission to enter the U.S.; the FBI will determine whether the government’s database of terror suspects should be reconfigured. He ordered the CIA to make sure intelligence reports are distributed faster.