ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
Now, more information about dots that were not connected in the case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Abdulmutallab is the 23-year-old Nigerian who was taken into custody on Christmas Day after an apparent attempt to blow up a Northwest airliner. Over the next few days it came out that U.S. intelligence had been warned by his father that he was off in Yemen involved with jihadist groups there, and that U.S. intelligence had picked up word out of Yemen about a Nigerian who was about to do something. Well, now the New York Times is reporting that U.S. intelligence had picked up a lot more than that and still failed to connect the dots. Mark Mazzetti is one of the Times' reporters who worked on today's story. Welcome to the program once again.
Mr. MARK MAZZETTI (Reporter, New York Times): Thank you.
SIEGEL: Let's go back to September. You report that the U.S. was tipped off to what kind of explosive device might be used on an airplane.
Mr. MAZZETTI: It was an explosive device that was used on an attack on a Saudi Prince that was an attack in September. It was an explosive device actually hidden in the person's undergarments. And this was an attack with a similar type of chemical that was ultimately used by Mr. Abdulmutallab in December.
SIEGEL: And someone from the U.N., I gather, had briefed U.S. people saying this could be on an airplane if it�
Mr. MAZZETTI: Yes. There were some indications that this could be used, this could be brought in through security on an airplane. And there were some U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials who gave similar warnings.
SIEGEL: You also write about an intercepted communication in early November from Yemen in which people spoke of a man named Umar Farouk who might be doing something.
Mr. MAZZETTI: Yeah. This is an interesting part of the story because actually the intercept occurred in August, we think by an intelligence service of an American ally, but it actually didn't get into the U.S. system until November. So there was a delay of several months where this tip about an Umar Farouk possibly planning or being involved in a future operation came through.
SIEGEL: You also quote a senior administration official, saying that intercepts picked up the date December 25th as sometime when something might be done. And also that al-Qaida people in Yemen were talking about how to get somebody out of that region and into the West.
Mr. MAZZETTI: Right. This is part of a, sort of, stream of intelligence that was coming in in November and December warning of something. There was a lot of concern about an attack inside of Yemen against perhaps the American embassy. So, there was - inside the Obama administration, there was a lot of concern about that. At the same time, as you said, there were some interesting intelligence intercepts discussing al-Qaida trying to get someone out, possibly an attack against the West, not inside Yemen. So - and it was all sort of coalescing around this date of December 25th.
SIEGEL: Now, then you report this. There, of course, was some research into Abdulmutallab after his father had gone to U.S. authorities in Nigeria, and here's what you write today: a draft memorandum on Mr. Abdulmutallab circulated through the CIA, but was still sitting in the computer of a junior CIA analyst, waiting until a photo of the young Nigerian was located. Unbeknownst to the analyst, officials told the Times, Mr. Abdulmutallab's photo had already been delivered to other counterterrorism agencies.
Mr. MAZZETTI: That's right. The CIA had earlier sent some information about Mr. Abdulmutallab that had come from his father through the counterterrorism system. Now, the CIA says this information was already in the system. We had passed it along. But others say, well, if this memo had actually been circulated in its final form that could have raised some flags and at least put him on some kind of a watch list that kept him off the plane.
SIEGEL: I guess, this is a question about data entry. I mean, is there some system by which if the words Nigerian and Yemen are put in one report that you would logically find that in a search and they might come up�
Mr. MAZZETTI: And Umar Farouk as well.
SIEGEL: And Umar Farouk as well as�
Mr. MAZZETTI: Yeah, that's what, to the layperson, it sort of puzzles people about how we have Google alerts to send us things after you key-in certain words, and why this wouldn't have happened in this case, it's still little bit of a mystery.
SIEGEL: Mark Mazzetti, of the New York Times, thanks a lot for talking with us.
Mr. MAZZETTI: Thank you very much.