Meanwhile, the investigation into the Christmas Day incident continues, and we're learning more about the suspect.
We were not supposed to be on the Christmas Day flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.
But after the Christmas Day terror attempt, there were also all kinds of reviews here by the White House.
If ever there was a case where the WBI scanning should have been used, the Christmas Day incident was it.
The bottom line is this: The U.S. government had sufficient information to have uncovered this plot and potentially disrupt the Christmas Day attack.
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He noted the Christmas Day attempt as an example, saying the suspect had a U.S. visa but little history of involvement with terrorist groups.
Third, we should accelerate deployment of advanced imaging technologies, so that we have greater capabilities to detect explosives like the ones used in the Christmas Day attack.
At the Christmas Day party, I have the hopeless task of organising the games for excited children - and parents - until rescued by the arrival of Santa Claus.
But the TSA does not conduct screening overseas, and the Christmas Day incident underscored that the screening procedures at foreign airports are critical to our safety here in the United States.
Passengers on the Christmas Day flight described a chaotic scene that began with a popping sound as the plane was making its final approach, followed by flames erupting at AbdulMutallab's seat.
In Yemen, Al-Iman University is highly respected and its leader admired, making it difficult for investigators to find out for sure if the Christmas Day bombing suspect was ever there.
It took the group only two or three months to mobilize Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, the so-called Underwear Bomber, charged in the Christmas Day 2009 bombing attack on a Northwest Airlines jet.
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The use of AIT scanners has increased since the Christmas Day 2009 attempt by Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab to blow up a plane over Detroit by detonating plastic explosives hidden in his underwear.
Washington (CNN) -- Senior Obama administration officials revealed late Tuesday they've secretly gained the cooperation of family members of Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab to help get the Christmas Day airline bomb suspect talking.
Yousef's brother-in-law, Said Al Shehri, also released from Gitmo, is currently the second in command of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the branch that launched the Christmas Day airline attack last year.
This explains why you'll find Nigerians who insist that the Christmas Day bomber failed not because he was incompetent, but because he was Nigerian, and couldn't process the thought of a self-inflicted death.
But the United States has independent intelligence verifying that AbdulMutallab met with al-Awlaki somewhere in southern Yemen before the Christmas Day bombing attempt, according to a U.S. security official with knowledge of the intelligence.
All 300 passengers and crew onboard the Christmas Day flight have been interviewed by authorities, the source said, adding that he expected no one else to be held or charged in connection with the incident.
Since the Christmas Day incident, can you tell me were there any discussions that took place here at the White House which question whether or not Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab would be tried as an enemy combatant?
Washington (CNN) -- In the wake of the Christmas Day attempt to blow up a U.S. airliner, most Americans remain confident the Obama administration can protect the country from terrorism, according to a new national poll.
The following year, in what may have been a hint of royal displeasure, the Queen announced the traditional broadcast was being dropped in favour of televised coverage of the Christmas Day service at St George's Chapel, Windsor.
Just in the past year we've seen the Christmas Day attempt by Mr. Abdulmutallab to blow up an airplane using a device that, as the President said, would not have and was not picked up by a simple metal detector.
Yet as the Christmas Day attempt illustrates, and as we were reminded this week by the sacrifices of more brave Americans in Afghanistan-including those seven dedicated men and women of the CIA-the hard work of protecting our nation is never done.
Three months before the Christmas Day attempted bombing John Brennan, Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, had been personally briefed by Prince Nayef about the assassination attempt, so information about the possible use of a hard-to-detect PETN bomb was known within the U.S. national security establishment.
The White House's review of the Christmas Day plot also found that there was sufficient information known to the U.S. government to determine that Abdulmutallab was likely working for al Qaeda and that the group was looking to expand its attacks beyond Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
Washington (CNN) -- Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Tuesday there is a "renewed sense of urgency in the international community" about terrorism after the Christmas Day bombing attempt aboard a U.S.-bound plane, and the U.S. should now push for global security standards for international airports and aircraft.
Such legitimate concerns have only been further exacerbated by Attorney General Eric Holder's now-notorious decision - one taken without consulting of the rest of the President's intelligence, homeland and national defense team - to allow the Christmas Day pantybomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab, to lawyer-up after just 50 minutes of interrogation.
Her boss, the president, made that plain in his comments Tuesday: "The bottom line is this: The U.S. government had sufficient information to have uncovered this plot and potentially disrupt the Christmas Day attack, but our intelligence community failed to connect those dots which would have placed the suspect on the no-fly list, " Obama said.
Though it was not clear whether al Qaeda was involved in the failed Christmas Day attack, the terrorist organization's hallmark is to launch nearly simultaneous attacks, as occurred during the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
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