Global Airport News

Britain said on Friday it was reviewing airport security and passenger screening procedures after a Nigerian, who had studied in Britain, was charged over last week's failed plot to bomb a US passenger jet.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Britain was working closely with the United States and other countries to improve information sharing on potential terrorism suspects.

In cooperation with the United States, Britain would examine new techniques to enhance airport security, such as full-body scanners and explosive trace and advanced x-ray technology, Brown said in an article for a government website.

The Netherlands and Nigeria have already said they will use full-body scanners at airports.

"Al Qaeda and their associates continue in their ambition to indoctrinate thousands of young people around the world with a deadly desire to kill and maim," Brown said.

US President Barack Obama has blamed "human and systemic failures" for allowing the botched Christmas Day attack aboard a Detroit-bound airliner, saying information available to intelligence experts should have been pieced together.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old suspect who says he was trained by al Qaeda in Yemen, is accused of trying to ignite explosives sewn inside his underwear on a flight from Amsterdam as it approached Detroit.

BRITISH LINK

Abdulmutallab studied engineering at University College London (UCL) from 2005 to 2008, becoming president of the student Islamic Society. The failed attack has raised questions about whether he was radicalised in Britain and has led some US critics to say British security forces have not done enough to counter Islamic militancy.

The New York Times said this week that, if Abdulmutallab was radicalised in Britain, it would show that Britain, a close US ally, "poses a major threat to American security."

Brown said Britain was "increasingly clear that he (Abdulmutallab) linked up with al Qaeda in Yemen after leaving London." Nevertheless, he said, "we… need to remain vigilant against people being radicalised here as well as abroad."

Yemen, "as both an incubator and potential safe haven for terrorism," presented a regional and global threat, Brown said.

UCL has set up an independent review of Abdulmutallab's time at the university.

Britain refused Abdulmutallab a further student visa in May and put him on an immigration watch list after he applied to attend a bogus college.

Brown said there was a need to look at what further international steps could have been taken to stop Abdulmutallab flying from Nigeria to Detroit, via Amsterdam.

Nigeria said on Thursday Abdulmutallab began his journey in Ghana and spent less than 30 minutes at Nigeria's Lagos airport.

Britain has one of the toughest borders in the world, he said, noting that more than 180 people had been banned from Britain on national security grounds.

"But in light of the Detroit incident we all urgently need to work together on how we might further tighten these arrangements — in particular, at what point suspects are added to the (watch) list and when they are deemed too risky to be allowed to fly, or leave or enter the country — and also into wider airport security," he said.

"That is why on Monday I ordered immediate reviews into existing measures — including for transit passengers — and asked for ways we can urgently tighten procedures," he said.

"I will be receiving the preliminary findings in the next few days and we will act on them as quickly as possible."