January 6th Morning Readbook

Obama: Dots Weren't Connected in Airline Attack




Analysis: For Obama, what will accountability be?
As the White House portrays the dramatic scene, President Barack Obama summoned his national security team to the Situation Room for a lecture about accountability after the failed terrorist attack on a Detroit-bound airliner. "This was a screw-up that could have been disastrous," the commander in chief said.


Angry Barack Obama vows security changes
An angry President Barack Obama said Tuesday there had been "unacceptable" failures in the American intelligence system that allowed an alleged terrorist to board a U.S.-bound Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day, and he vowed changes in security procedures and information-gathering to avert future plots.


WORLD: Iraq frees militant leader linked to British hostages
The Iraqi government has released the leader of a militant Shiite group linked to the 2007 kidnapping of five Britons, a spokesman said Tuesday. An Interior Ministry spokesman said Qais al-Khazali was freed Sunday, following his transfer several days earlier from U.S. to Iraqi custody.


Iraq frees Shiite militant in exchange for Briton, followers say
High-level Iraqi officials refuse to confirm the release of Qais Khazali, which had been billed as a key step before his group would hand over Peter Moore, an abducted Briton who was freed last week.


Confusion grows over how bomber infiltrated CIA base in Afghanistan
The Jordanian double agent had never been to the base before the attack that killed seven CIA employees waiting to receive hot tips on Al Qaeda.


The many faces of the double agent CIA bomber




US Drone Attack Kills 4 In Pakistan - Officials
U.S. missiles targeted a Taliban training center in Pakistan's tribal belt Wednesday, killing four militants in the latest strike in a recent spike in drone attacks, Pakistani officials said. The attack targeted a compound in Sanzali village, about 30 kilometers west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, and was the fourth suspected U.S. missile attack in the tribal district in a week.


Former bin Laden bodyguard is among ex-guerrillas in Yemen
When he served in the Afghan mountains as Osama bin Laden's bodyguard, Nasser al-Bahri said, he was known as "The Killer." Today, Bahri is a business consultant in Yemen who favors Western-style pinstriped shirts, crisp slacks and black loafers. But his ideas are still radical: Ask him whether jihadists should kill Americans on U.S. soil and he replies without hesitation, "America is a legitimate target."


Yemen arrests 3 al Qaeda suspects
Yemeni security forces arrested three al Qaeda suspects northwest of the capital, Sanaa, early Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said. The suspects were wounded and on the run after clashes with government troops on Monday, when they were thought to be accompanying Mohammed Ahmed al-Haunq, an al Qaeda leader for the area, according to the ministry.



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