Passengers face tougher checks on US-bound flights

by D.S.Rajput | January 4, 2010 at 01:57 am

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New Delhi: US administration currently imposess extra security on the american air ports, from coming flight fron 14 countries neme are Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia Yemen, Algeria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. According to US prosecutors, Abdulmutallab tried to bring down the Northwest Airlines Airbus A330 using a device containing the explosive PETN, also known as pentaerythritol. All passengers flying into the United States from abroad will be subject to random screening or so-called "threat-based" screens, the Transport Security Administration (TSA) said in a statement. But it further mandated that "every individual flying into the US from anywhere in the world traveling from or through nations that are state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest will be required to go through enhanced screening." The tough rules go into effect from midnight Sunday (0500 GMT Monday) and follow the failed plane attack blamed on a 23-year-old Nigerian who had recently traveled to Yemen allegedly to train with Al-Qaeda. Suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab reportedly boarded the flight at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport after flying in from Lagos, Nigeria.

US President Barack Obama, who vowed to act swiftly to close any security gaps, has accused Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a Yemen-based cell of Osama bin Laden's group, of targeting the Northwest jet. But amid questions over the failures in US security, Obama's top counter-terrorism advisor John Brennan said there had been no evidence which would have unmasked the plot sooner. "It was a failure to integrate the bits and pieces of information."But Brennan indicated to Fox News Sunday the United States was not opening a new front against Al-Qaeda in Yemen and has no plans to send troops there. "I wouldn't say we're opening a second front. This is a continuation of an effort that we had underway, as I said, since the beginning of the administration," said Brennan. He also told CNN the United States would continue to repatriate Guantanamo detainees to Yemen, with about 90 still held at the US military base in Cuba. "Some of these individuals are going to be transferred back to Yemen at the right time and the right pace and in the right way," he said. The terror scare has prompted Obama to order two reviews of intelligence and security operations, and he will meet with spy chiefs and top officials Tuesday to discuss the findings. Meanwhile, the family of Abdulmutallab, who is the son of a wealthy banker, have said they will travel from northern Nigeria to Detroit to attend his arraignment due on Friday.