US president Barack Obama today acknowledged that there are shortcomings in intelligence agencies due to which his administration failed to unearth the Al Qaeda plot to blow up a US plane on December 25.
"In our ever-changing world, America's first line of defense is timely, accurate intelligence that is shared, integrated, analysed and acted upon quickly and effectively. That's what the intelligence reforms after the 9/11 attacks largely achieved. That's what our intelligence community does every day," Obama said.
"But, unfortunately, that's not what happened in the lead-up to Christmas day. It's now clear that shortcomings occurred in three broad and compounding ways," Obama told reporters at White House after receiving preliminary reports on December 25 failed bombing of a NorthWest Airlines plane.
"Although our intelligence community had learned a great deal about the Al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen, called Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, that we knew that they sought to strike the US and that they were recruiting operatives to do so, the intelligence community did not aggressively follow up on and prioritise particular streams of intelligence related to a possible attack against the homeland," he said.
