Flight 253 Fallout: Obama, Congress To Probe National Security Intelligence

Expect Congressional hearings exploring what happened in the weeks before the attempted terror attack on Flight 253 in the new year.

President Obama returns to Washington next week and plans a private huddle with intelligence officials and his national security team to evaluate the findings of a probe into the communication breakdown that allowed a Nigerian man to board a plane with explosives in his underwear.

Already the administration has put in place new measures and homeland security officials are coordinating with international airports.

Congress will be back mid-January and if the political chatter this week is any indication, Flight 253 will dominate their return.

In the week since the incident, there have been statements from Obama and other top White House officials, a preliminary review and a host of political fundraising attempts and accusations coming from GOP members of Congress and former President Dick Cheney.

Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kit Bond announced Jan. 21 hearings of their Senate Select Committee on Intelligence but will start the investigation sooner by collecting "all intelligence related to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab held by various intelligence agencies in order to determine who had what, and how the information was handled."

The panel also will review national security policies on sharing information and terrorist watchlisting, they said. The House intelligence panel also is looking into the incident.

"The Christmas Day incident revealed some serious failures in our nation's system of security," said Feinstein (D-CA).

She urged lawmakers to "put aside political differences" and remember how the nation worked together after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

"Christmas Day was a stark reminder, and we must heed it by working together with the President to take whatever steps are necessary to close the gaps in our system of defense," she said.

Bond (R-MO) said the probe will follow the intelligence "down the rabbit hole" to prevent further problems.

"Somebody screwed up big time, that plane would have gone down if the suicide bomber was more competent or the passengers and crew were less heroic," he said.

The Senate Commerce Committee, with jurisdiction over TSA, also will hold a hearing to look at the state of aviation security. It is scheduled for Jan. 20.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is collecting the data from the various agencies. Members of Congress were briefed as well.

Officials have said if information had been better shared between intelligence agencies, the suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab would have been prevented from boarding the plane.

Dennis Blair wrote a letter to the intelligence community today saying the review is tough to hear but that the community must respond as a team.