Failures at all levels undermining US spy agencies' crackdown on terror

Concerns over alleged intelligence gaps that have lingered since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States have increased in recent weeks after the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a US airliner and the suicide bomb attack by an al Qaeda double agent in Afghanistan which killed seven CIA officers.

As 2010 begins with the so-called "war on terror" seemingly no nearer to being won, US President Barack Obama has been handed an old set of problems to deal with; problems which stretch back to before hijacked planes slammed into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

Last week, the usually unflappable Obama sought to calm fears caused by the security lapses which allowed a Nigerian man with alleged links to Yemen-based al Qaeda operatives to board a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit with an explosive device hidden in his underwear.

Publicly, Obama assured the American people that his administration would work fast and hard to improve security to eradicate the "human and systemic failures" behind the Christmas Day incident. But behind closed doors, it is alleged that the president used sharper language with his security chiefs, calling the incident a potentially disastrous "screw up" by the intelligence community, telling them that "we dodged a bullet but just barely."

Intelligence in conflict zones suffering

The Khost blast was one of the biggest attacks on the CIA

The inability to both anticipate and stop the nature of this evolving threat was painfully highlighted two weeks ago by the bombing inside Forward Operating Base Chapman, a well-fortified compound in Afghanistan's Khost province near the southeastern border with Pakistan.

Despite supposedly successful "deradicalization," Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi - a Jordanian jihadist captured and turned into a CIA spy - was allowed to enter the base without adequate security checks. Once inside, Balawi, who had been given a mission to infiltrate al Qaeda and pass on information on its leaders, detonated a hidden explosive, killing seven operatives and contractors and his Jordanian handler.

The attack not only showed an embarrassing lack of vigilance but also exposed the intelligence community's dearth in understanding of the situation in Afghanistan and the current capabilities of al Qaeda. Recent US intelligence suggested the terror organization's power had been diminished but the attack showed that, contrary to that belief, al Qaeda has achieved a new level of sophistication and may not be as weakened as US officials had thought.

Lack of communication and accurate intelligence

The attack also highlighted the problems which all operatives - at home and abroad - seem to encounter: that of an inability to gather and then share information they can trust.

Intel agencies have been under scrutiny since 9/11