[jimworcs]

Security and intelligence lapses allowed a suspected terrorist to board a U.S.-bound airliner on Christmas Day, President Obama said from Hawaii today, interrupting his vacation to speak about the failed bombing attempt."A systemic failure has occurred, and I consider that totally unacceptable," Obama said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-a...,4242709.story

Nigeria's civil aviation authority said last night that he bought his round-trip ticket from Lagos to Detroit via Amsterdam at a KLM office in Ghana's capital, Accra, on 16 December, with a planned return of 8 January. He paid the £1,775 fare in cash. Before the flight departed on Thursday, he checked in as normal, taking only a carry-on bag.
Security at Lagos had been found adequate by US authorities. Under EU rules, Abdulmutallab would have been checked again as a transfer passenger at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. Dutch officials say these checks took place and were "well performed".
Aviation security experts said that scanners designed to pick up explosives rather than metal exist, but are not in widespread use

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009...omber-al-qaida

We are probably going to have to accept the use of "body scanners" despite people's privacy concerns. However, the failure in this case is principally one of intelligence handling and little to do with the security at Lagos or Schipol.