Lieberman pointed to breakdowns at the State Department and the National Counterterrorism Center, where he said people failed to act to identify as a threat the suspected bomber, a young Nigerian, and revoke his visa.
“At the National Counterterrorism Center, something went wrong,’’ said Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. “So if human errors were made, I think some of the humans who made those errors have to be disciplined so that they never happen again.’’
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, is accused of igniting an explosive mixture aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 as it prepared to land in Detroit. Officials had received fragments of information as early as October about an alleged terrorist recruit they later learned was Abdulmutallab.
Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,’’ Senator Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, was asked whether Obama should fire Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, National Counterterrorism Center head Michael Leiter, or presidential counterterrorism adviser John Brennan.
Kyl said the advisers reflect the sentiments of the president. “I think the president was right when he said, ‘The buck stops with me.’ The problem is he can’t be fired right now,’’ Kyl said. “So what he’s got to do is provide a sense of urgency with these people who work for him.’’
Other lawmakers said the United States should be more careful about releasing detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to countries where Al Qaeda has a presence, including Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
Last week Obama suspended the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to Yemen, home to nearly half of the 198 terrorist suspect detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. Obama has reiterated his vow to close the camp.
On Sunday, Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said that a Saudi rehabilitation program for detainees has had mixed results and that individuals should not be sent there.
“You shouldn’t be sending them back to Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan,’’ he said. “Because the evidence is clear - these people are released and a number of them go back onto the battlefield.’’
Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California and chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, agreed that more care must be taken in releasing detainees.
“I agree with those that have said that Guantanamo has really been a recruiting tool for Al Qaeda, that it has not been helpful to us,’’ she said.
