U.S. President Barack Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser says intelligence agencies did not miss a “smoking gun” that could have prevented the failed Christmas Day attack on a U.S.-bound jetliner.
In separate interviews on U.S. television news shows on Sunday, John Brennan said U.S. officials had information about the Nigerian man accused in the attack. But he said there was no intelligence information that brought all the evidence about the bombing plot together.
The White House aide said there were errors in the sharing of intelligence about the suspect, 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. But Brennan, who is leading the White House review of the incident, said there is no evidence that U.S. agencies were reluctant to share the information.
President Obama has said there was a systemic failure to prevent the attack, which he said was instigated by an al-Qaida affiliate in Yemen.
The president has ordered an inter-agency review to find out how Abdulmutallab allegedly smuggled explosives onto a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.
The father of the suspect, a prominent Nigerian banker and former government minister, had warned U.S. officials in Nigeria about his son’s extremist views. Abdulmutallab’s name was placed in a U.S. government database, but not on the list that would have prevented him from boarding the plane.
President Obama has summoned Homeland Security officials to meet with him at the White House on Tuesday.
‘Some information for this report was provided by AP.’