President Barack Obama says the United States will work to ensure that the intelligence and security failures that led to an attempted terrorist attack on a U.S.-bound airliner will not happen again. The president says the incident was a failure of the system, not of individuals.
President Obama says no one person or agency is to blame for the lapses that allowed the incident to take place. But he says it is his responsibility to keep the American people safe.
"I am less interested in passing out blame than I am in learning from and correcting these mistakes to make us safer. For ultimately, the buck stops with me. As president, I have a solemn responsibility to protect our nation and our people, and when the system fails it is my responsibility."
The president spoke (Thursday) after spending several days reading a report on the incident and meeting with top officials to analyze what went wrong.
(You can listen to the entire remarks by the president by clicking on the audio link on the top left)
