Barack Obama: We screwed up over Detroit attack

Barack Obama rebuked 20 of his top officials for "screwing up" over the failed Christmas Day attack on a plane bound for Detroit.

The President told them it "could have been disastrous" and should have been avoided during a 90-minute session inside the White House Situation Room.

The grim-faced president then informed Americans the government had enough information to stop the attack but that the intelligence community did not "connect those dots".

"That's not acceptable and I will not tolerate it," he said. "We will do better and we have to do it quickly. American lives are on the line.

"We dodged a bullet, but just barely. While there will be a tendency for finger-pointing, I will not tolerate it. It was averted by brave individuals, not because the system worked, and that is not acceptable."

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old would-be bomber who studied at University College London, was not moved from a database of suspected terrorists to a "no-fly" list because intelligence was not fully analysed. "The information was there," Mr Obama said.

Mr Obama did not say who, if anyone, might be held accountable. Earlier in the day, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the President still had full confidence in his three top national security officials: the director of national intelligence Dennis Blair, CIA Director Leon Panetta and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

Nigerian Abdulmutallab, who tried to set off an explosive device aboard the plane as it came into land, has told investigators he received training from al Qaeda operatives in Yemen. His father warned the US embassy in Nigeria that his son had drifted into extremism.

Director of national intelligence Mr Blair said his staff had received the president's message. "We got it, and we are moving forward to meet the new challenges," Mr Blair said.

Mr Obama is also suspending the transfer of Guantanamo prison detainees to Yemen. Nearly half of the 198 suspects held there are from Yemen.

"Make no mistake, we will close Guantanamo prison," Mr Obama said. He said the camp was "an explicit rationale for the formation of al Qaeda" operating in Yemen.