There were a couple lapses in the reaction of the government and the airline that allowed attempted bomber Faisal Shahzad to come close to making his escape, officials of the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation revealed, according to a report in the New York Times.
Faisal was allowed aboard a flight for Dubai -- 24 hours after investigators of the Times Square terrorism case learned he might be connected to the attempted bombing. Shahzad was stopped before the flight's departure.
The Times story highlights:
• The F.B.I. surveillance team that had found Shahzad in Connecticut lost track of him for a period of time before he drove to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
• Investigators were not aware he was planning to fly overseas until a last passenger list was sent to officials at the federal Customs and Border Protection agency.
• The airline -- Emirates -- failed to act on an electronic message at midday on Monday notifying all carriers to scan the no-fly list for an important added name.
NYC Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg critiqued the responses, concluding, “Clearly the guy was on the plane and shouldn’t have been. We got lucky.”
Meanwhile, according to the Times report, Sen. Susan M. Collins, Republican of Maine, said, “A key question for me is why this suspect was allowed to board the plane in the first place. There appears to be a troubling gap between the time they had his name and the time he got on the plane."
To read the full New York Times story
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