WASHINGTON – The U.S. House Intelligence Committee will hold a Jan. 13 hearing on the thwarted Christmas Day attack on a U.S. airliner, the panel's spokeswoman said Monday.
Lawmakers expect to receive preliminary findings from reviews — ordered by President Barack Obama after the failed plot — into airline security procedures, said Courtney Littig.
Democratic Rep. Silvestre Reyes, the panel's chairman, "expects that the January 13th briefing will include the preliminary findings of the president's internal review," she said.
The Obama administration has also ordered tight new security measures for passengers flying to the United States after a 23-year-old Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, allegedly tried to bring down a Northwest Airlines jet.
According to U.S. prosecutors, Abdulmutallab tried to bring down Flight 253 using a device containing the explosive PETN, also known as pentaerythritol.
Stitched into his underwear, it was not spotted by the traditional metal detectors. It failed to go off properly, but sparked an on-board fire that was swiftly put out.
Several other U.S. congressional committees have also scheduled hearings to discuss security failures that led up to the plot.
© AFP 2013