Counterterrorism

Obama: 'Buck Stops With Me'

Demands intelligence overhaul in new speech.

After meeting yesterday with intelligence agency heads, President Obama still thinks a "systemic failure" allowed the Christmas bomber to smuggle liquid explosives on an Amsterdam-Detroit flight, and ordered four major reforms. First, the intelligence community will assign individual responsibility for specific high-priority threats. Second, reports will be distributed quickly and more widely. Third, National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair will overhaul the organization of intelligence analytics. Finally, the government will bolster the no-fly list. He named Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and National Security Adviser John Brennan as key in the systemic overhaul, but "ultimately, the buck stops with me." Though the screening technology necessary to detect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's liquid explosives is in use at the Amsterdam airport, it was not at the checkpoint Abdulmutallab used. "There's no silver bullet to securing the thousands of flights into America each day," Obama said, noting that prior to the event he had already amped up airport security funding by $1 billion. He will meet again with agency heads in 30 days to check on their progress. "We will leave no stone unturned in seeking better ways to protect the American people," he said, ending the speech by acknowledging urgency and the need to win over Muslims worldwide to address "the unique challenges posed by lone recruits." He continued, "We are at war. We are at war against al Qaeda.... Now is not a time for partisanship, it is a time for citizenship, to come together and work together."