Explosive on Flight 253 Is Among Most Powerful  —  Sewn into the underwear of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a powerful plastic explosive, the authorities say.  —  Had Mr. Abdulmutallab, sitting in seat 19A of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Friday from Amsterdam to Detroit …

Security System Failed, Napolitano Acknowledges  —  WASHINGTON — Backtracking from a widely criticized assertion over the weekend, the secretary of homeland security, Janet Napolitano, said in a televised interview on Monday that the thwarted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner …

Uninvestigated terrorism warning about Detroit suspect called not unusual  —  When Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's father in Nigeria reported concern over his son's “radicalization” to the U.S. Embassy there last month, intelligence officials in the United States deemed the information insufficient to pursue.

The Terror This Time  —  Janet Napolitano says the system worked.  No, we were brave and lucky.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  A U.S. government that has barred the phrase “war on terror” has nonetheless acknowledged that a failed Christmas day bomb attack on an airliner was a terrorist attempt.

Abdulmutallab: More Like Me In Yemen  —  Accused Northwest Bomber Says More Bombers On the Way; Al Qaeda Promises to Hit Americans  —  American officials have cause to worry there may be more al Qaeda-trained young men in Yemen planning to bring down American jets.

Napolitano Reverses Course, Says Air Security Did NOT Work  —  A day after saying “the system worked” — and being pressed by CNN's Candy Crowley about how exactly that was the case — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano changed tack Monday and said that the U.S. air-travel security net …