UK reviews security
Screening after Detroit attack:
UK: Britain said on Friday it was reviewing airport security
and passenger screening procedures after a Nigerian who had studied in
Britain was charged over last week’s failed plot to bomb a US passenger
jet.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Britain was working closely with the
United States and other countries to improve information sharing on
potential terrorism suspects.
In cooperation with the United States, Britain would examine new
techniques to enhance airport security, such as full-body scanners and
explosive trace and advanced x-ray technology, Brown said in an article
for a government website.
The Netherlands and Nigeria have already said they will use full-body
scanners at airports.
“Al Qaeda and their associates continue in their ambition to
indoctrinate thousands of young people around the world with a deadly
desire to kill and maim,” Brown said.
U.S. President Barack Obama has blamed “human and systemic failures”
for allowing the botched Christmas Day attack aboard a Detroit-bound
airliner, saying information available to intelligence experts should
have been pieced together.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old suspect who says he was
trained by al Qaeda in Yemen, is accused of trying to ignite explosives
sewn inside his underwear on Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam as it
approached Detroit. Abdulmutallab studied engineering at University
College London (UCL) from 2005 to 2008, becoming president of the
student Islamic Society.
The failed attack has raised questions about whether he was
radicalised in Britain and has led some U.S. critics to say British
security forces have not done enough to counter Islamic militancy.
The New York Times said this week that, if Abdulmutallab was
radicalised in Britain, it would show that Britain, a close U.S. ally,
“poses a major threat to American security”.
Brown said Britain was “increasingly clear that he (Abdulmutallab)
linked up with al Qaeda in Yemen after leaving London”. Nevertheless, he
said, “we ... need to remain vigilant against people being radicalised
here as well as abroad”.
LONDON, Friday, Reuters |
