BARAK OBAMA ANNOUNCES SECURITY OVERHAUL
Baku, 8 January (AZERTAC). US President Barack Obama has announced changes to US intelligence gathering and sharing, to prevent a recurrence of the Christmas Day plane bomb plot. In national address on January 7, he said the terror watch list would be boosted and security risk data better distributed. Hundreds more air marshals will be recruited, screening at airports improved and visa rules reviewed.
Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is charged with the attempted murder of 290 people, and five other counts.
Mr Abdulmutallab, 23, is to make his first appearance in federal court on Friday in Detroit for a hearing to determine if he stays in custody.
Announcing the conclusions of a review of intelligence failures uncovered by a White House inquiry, President Obama said the US government "had the information scattered throughout the system to potentially uncover this plot and disrupt the attack".
He said he was ordering immediate strengthening of the terrorist watch list, information on security risks would be distributed more widely, and analysis of that information would be improved.
Also among more than a dozen new measures are improved screening technology at US airports, the recruitment of hundreds more air marshals and a review of the issuing of US visas.
In his remarks on Thursday, President Obama said that although the US was at war with the al-Qaeda, it did not mean America should succumb to a "siege mentality".
He said his administration would work to persuade Muslims around the world that al-Qaeda`s policies and aims were bankrupt and produced only misery.
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