First terror probe to 'shock' Americans

US: The White House warned Americans to brace for a "certain shock" Thursday when it releases a first probe into intelligence failures exposed by the Christmas attack on a US airliner carrying 290 people.

New details about the thwarted bombing of the Northwest jet will follow revelations from Yemen that a Nigerian man charged with carrying out the plot met a radical Muslim cleric accused by Washington of instigating terrorism.

President Barack Obama, who has complained about a disastrous intelligence "screw-up", will make a fresh statement Thursday, as his administration fights claims it botched the initial response to the attempted suicide bombing.

His national security advisor James Jones prepared public opinion for the report by warning Americans would feel a "certain shock" when they read about systemic failures in intelligence operations designed to keep them safe.

Obama "is legitimately and correctly alarmed that things that were available, bits of information that were available, patterns of behavior that were available, were not acted on," Jones told USA Today.

Noting the failed bid to destroy the jet, and the shooting rampage which killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas in November by a Muslim army psychiatrist.WASHINGTON, Friday, AFP