US President Barack Obama lashed out at systemic intelligence failures over the attempted attack on a US jet amid reports Wednesday that Washington was planning reprisal strikes against terror targets. The US president was told Tuesday there had been warnings of possible Christmas holiday attacks, and information that the Nigerian would-be bomber was a threat, but the data was not properly distributed throughout the US government. “A systemic failure has occurred and I consider that totally unacceptable,” Obama said, breaking his Hawaii vacation for a second straight day as recriminations mounted over the botched Dec. 25 attack on a Northwest airliner. “There was a mix of human and systemic failures that contributed to this potential catastrophic breach of security. We need to learn from this episode and act quickly to fix the flaws in our system because our security is at stake and lives are at stake.” Meanwhile, CNN reported that the United States and Yemen were reviewing targets for a potential reprisal strike after a local Al-Qaeda affiliate claimed responsibility. CNN cited two senior US officials who “stressed the effort is aimed at being ready with options for the White House if President Obama orders a retaliatory strike. The effort is to see whether targets can be specifically linked to the airliner incident and its planning.” Citing intelligence flaws, Obama complained that the father of would-be bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had warned US diplomats in Abuja that his son was an extremist threat – yet the man was still able to board a US jet with explosives. Obama has ordered two reviews into the Christmas Day attack – one into the no-fly list system and another into how Abdulmutallab managed to sneak an explosive device past security at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport onto a plane bound for the US.
