Washington: US President Barack Obama did not
pay full attention to the war on terror in his first year in
office as he was "distracted" by domestic issues like health
care and climate change, officials associated with the 9/11
commission have said, describing the botched Christmas Day
bombing as "a wake-up call".
"In a way, this Christmas Day bomber (who tried to blow
up a US airliner leading to stepped up security across the US)
did us a favour. I think we were not paying close attention to
this area, and it`s understandable," Thomas Kean, ex-Chairman
of the 9/11 Commission, said in his appearance before the
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
"We were talking about health care, cap-and-trade,
certainly the economy... We got distracted a bit, I think.
Everybody from the President on down got distracted, and we
weren`t paying full attention to this area," he said.
So these things were allowed to develop and cracks
allowed to form and "things got a little off track," Kean said
at the Congressional hearing on `Intelligence Reform: The
lessons and implications of the Christmas Day attack.`
Kean termed the botched attempt by Nigerian bomber Umar
Farouq Abdulmutallab to blow up a US plane on December 25 as a
wake-up call for the Obama Administration. "I assume that the
actions are going to follow the statements and that he (Obama)
is going to pay now strict attention to this problem."
Lee Hamilton, Vice Chairman of the Commission, criticised
Obama for not putting more emphasis on fighting terror
attacks.
"It`s my impression that the intelligence community is
new, relatively new to the President. I think he began to
receive intelligence somewhere along the campaign," Hamilton
said.
"I do not think he has a firm grasp yet of the
intelligence community and, therefore, I`m pretty strong in my
thought that he has to step in pretty hard here, or some of
these tensions which have surfaced will exacerbate," he said.
Kean, the former New Jersey Governor, and Hamilton --
whose 2004 recommendations paved the way for the federal
government to adjust its intelligence operations to meet the
evolving threat of 21st Century terrorism -- emphasised the
importance of supporting strong civil liberties protections in
an age when the government must intrude on some areas of
individual privacy for the sake of security.
They renewed their plea for Congress to consolidate
its oversight of the intelligence community and the Department
of Homeland Security, a 9-11 Commission recommendation that
met with fierce resistance from the full Senate in 2004.
Kean and Hamilton told the Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs Committee that strong support from the
President is needed to ensure that the Director of National
Intelligence can force integration of intelligence community
as intended by 2004 legislation authored by Committee Chairman
Joe Lieberman and Ranking Member Susan Collins.
They said the failure of the US government to detect and
thwart terrorist attacks at Fort Hood military base in Texas,
where a soldier went on a shooting spree killing 12 of his
colleagues, and on December 25 underscored continued tensions
among components of the intelligence community.
PTI
