More evidence of terror danger than US govt admits: Report

Top US national security officials failed to fully appreciate mounting evidence that Al-Qaeda might be preparing a new attack on the United States.

Top US national security officials failed to fully appreciate mounting evidence that Al-Qaeda might be preparing a new attack on the United States and of the dangers posed by extremists linked to Yemen,The New York Times reported on Monday.

Earlier this month,the administration of President Barack Obama presented its findings about a failed Christmas Day attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound US airliner.

But a detailed review of the episode shows that there were far more warning signs than the administration has acknowledged,the newspaper said.

In September,a United Nations expert on Al-Qaeda warned policy makers in Washington that the type of explosive device used by a Yemeni militant in an assassination attempt in Saudi Arabia could be carried aboard an airliner,the report said.

In early November,US intelligence authorities say they learned from a communications intercept of Al-Qaeda followers in Yemen that a man named Umar Farouk — the first two names of the jetliner suspect,Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab — had volunteered for a coming operation,The Times noted.

In late December,more intercepts of Al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen,who had previously focused their attacks on the region,mentioned the date of December 25,and suggested that they were looking for ways to get somebody out or for ways to move people to the West, the paper pointed out,citing an unnamed senior administration official.