Botched plane attack: US looking beyond borders

I / Washington January 01, 2010, 11:48 IST

After the failed Detroit plane bombing in which a young Nigerian managed to enter a US jet with explosive, the Obama Administration has decided to dispatch its officials to countries across the world to review the security procedures and the technologies being used at international airports.

"As part of the ongoing review to determine exactly what went wrong leading up to thwarted plane attack on Christmas Day, we are looking not only at our own processes, but also beyond our borders to ensure effective aviation security measures are in place for US-bound flights that originate at international airports," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said.

The announcement from Napolitano in this regard came after her conference call with US President Barack Obama wherein she briefed him about the preliminary reports of the review of the security procedures being done by the Department of Homeland Security.

Obama had asked for a preliminary report by Thursday.

Napolitano said she is dispatching Deputy Secretary Jane Holl Lute, Assistant Secretary for Policy David Heyman and other senior Department officials on a broad international outreach effort to meet with leaders from major international airports in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and South America to review security procedures and technology being used to screen passengers on flights bound for America.

The Department of Homeland Security, however, did not confirm if any of these visits would include India in particular.

"Because I am fully committed to making whatever changes are necessary to protect the safety of the travelling public, I am sending Deputy Secretary Lute and Assistant Secretary Heyman to work with our international partners on ways to collectively bolster our tactics for defeating terrorists wherever they may seek to launch an attack, and I will follow up on these efforts with ministerial-level meetings within the next few weeks," Napolitano said.

Deputy Secretary Lute and Assistant Secretary Heyman will first travel to Europe, departing on January 4.

They will brief European authorities on the findings of President Obama's aviation security review and then report back to Napolitano on their discussions on enhancing international security measures.

"They are going to talk about the need to enhance international cooperation on this thing, given that international travel is inherently international and requiring that kind of cooperation," a senior Administration official said.