Uncomfortable hearings to explore failings in anti-terror policy

HONOLULU: United States President Barack Obama is reviewing reports from homeland security officials as his administration tries to determine what policy and personnel failures preceded the attempted bombing of a jetliner bound for Detroit.

US intelligence officials, meanwhile, prepared for what was shaping up to be uncomfortable hearings before Congress about miscommunication among anti-terror agencies and changes expected under Obama's watch.

Democrats joined a chorus led by Obama in declaring the government's intelligence procedures in need of repair. Among them, Democrat Jane Harman said that when officials are warned about trouble as they were before a 23-year-old Nigerian man boarded the Northwest Airlines in Amsterdam jet with explosives, "someone's hair should be on fire".