Obama outlines preliminary changes

Following the attempted Christmas Day bombing on a trans-Atlantic airliner, President Barack Obama says American intelligence agencies had enough information but failed to interpret it. The president has outlined a series of preliminary changes in the country's security procedures.

Barack Obama has met with more than two dozen of his top intelligence and national security advisors to discuss ways of improving information sharing and security procedures, amid concerns about a new al-Qaeda threat from Yemen.

Obama said, "We are determined not only to thwart those plans but to disrupt, dismantle and defeat their networks once and for all."

In Tuesday's White House statement, Obama said enough information was available to put Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on a no-fly list. That means intelligence agencies may have missed a chance to avert the plot.

Obama said, "This was not a failure to collect intelligence; it was a failure to integrate and understand the intelligence that we already had."

Obama said he expects relevant government agency heads to deliver their final reports on the failure this week, and that new security measures will be implemented immediately.

As part of an effort to limit political fallout from the Christmas Day incident, the president has outlined an initial series of security changes.

Obama said, "Counter-terrorism officials have reviewed and updated our terrorism watchlist system including adding more individuals to the no-fly list. "

The administration has imposed tighter screening for US-bound airline passengers from 14 mostly-Muslim countries.

The president also announced he is suspending the transfer of detainees from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay to Yemen as a result of the declining security situation there.