Obama vows to hunt extremists

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama said Monday he has ordered two investigations into how the United States protects its borders from acts of terrorism after the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound flight on the Christmas Day holiday.
In his first public comments since Fridays incident, Obama pledged to disrupt, to dismantle and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us - whether they are from Afghanistan or Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia or anywhere where they are plotting attacks against the US homeland.
Obama said the attempt served as a reminder of the threats facing the US and vowed to confront those that try to kill innocent civilians.
Its absolutely critical that we learn from this incident and take the necessary measures to prevent future acts of terrorism, Obama said during vacation with his family in Hawaii.
We will not rest until we find all those involved and hold them accountable, Obama said. This was a serious reminder of the dangers that we face and the nature of those who threaten our homeland.
As millions of edgy air travellers endured stringent new security measures for flights around the globe, Obama was under massive pressure to ease frayed nerves and counter accusations his administration is soft on terror.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian man, has been charged with attempting to destroy the Northwest Airlines plane carrying 278 passengers from Amsterdam to Detroit on Friday. He was subdued by passengers after the explosive caused a small fire but failed to detonate.
Al-Qaeda has reportedly claimed responsibility for the failed attack, said the Washington-based IntelCentre, which monitors terrorist activity.
Obama said he ordered a review of the governments terrorist watch lists, after it emerged that Abdulmutallab was on the low-level TIDE database of people with possible terrorism links. He was not on a much more restrictive no-fly list.
The Obama Administration will also be reviewing flight screening procedures. Abdulmutallab smuggled pentaerythritol (PETN) explosive material onto the Detroit-bound flight, which left from Amsterdams Shiphol airport, justice officials have charged.
The American people should remain vigilant but also remain confident, Obama said. As a nation we will do everything in our power to protect our country.
AFP adds: US President Obama vowed to hunt down extremists wherever they plot attacks against the United States, as Al-Qaeda said it hatched the Christmas Day attempt to blow up a US-bound airliner.
An Al-Qaeda affiliate in the Arabian peninsula claimed Monday it was behind the failed bombing and threatened new attacks on the West.
In an Internet posting the group said a technical fault caused the plots failure, SITE Intelligence said.
The statement was accompanied by a picture of Abdulmutallab, who was described as the Nigerian brother, and boasted he was able to breach all the modern and sophisticated technologies and checkpoints at the airports around the world, according to IntelCentre, another US monitoring group.
His act has dealt a huge blow to the myth of American and global intelligence services and showed how fragile its structure is.