Terrerist attack foiled

The suspected attack is “troubling because of the potential commentary on the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of foreign-based security and explosives detection,” said Robert Mann, owner of consultant R.W. Mann & Co. in Port Washington, New York.

The National Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism in the Netherlands and the Dutch Royal Military Police “are investigating what happened,” Judith Sluiter, a spokeswoman for the national coordinator, said in a telephone interview today. The investigation covers the passenger's movements and whether security checks were in place, she said.

Because of the incident, the U.S. authorities are asking airlines to take extra security measures worldwide, the national coordinator said earlier today. Extra searches of passengers and luggage were implemented at Schiphol.

In the UK, passengers traveling to the U.S. were advised to leave more time to check in and limit baggage being taken on board, a spokeswoman for BAA Ltd., which operates six UK airports including Heathrow, wrote in an e-mail.

Body Checks

In Australia, travelers leaving Sydney on flights to the U.S. were to undergo more stringent body and luggage checks. Melbourne Airport had received instructions from the Australian government to boost security checks, spokesman Damian Tkalec said.

Taiwan imposed additional security checks of passengers and carry-on items at gates for U.S. flights from the island's airports, Liu Chang-hui, spokesman for the Aviation Police Office, said. Carolyn Leung, a Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. spokeswoman, said Hong Kong's biggest carrier stepped up security screening for U.S.-bound flights on U.S. advice.

Indian airports “are already on high alert due to the festive season,” Rohit Katiyar, a spokesman of Central Industrial Security Force, a government agency under home ministry, said today by telephone.

In Canada, Transport Minister John Baird instructed Transport Canada and the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority “to assume a heightened state of vigilance.”

Flight Delays

Air Canada, the country's largest airline, advised passengers traveling to the U.S. that enhanced security measures could lead to flight delays, cancellations and missed connections.

Nigeria, whose 140 million people make it Africa's most populous country, is almost evenly split between the mainly Muslim north and a largely Christian south.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the group's Yemen-based arm, has issued threats against the U.S. following strikes against it, according to IntelCenter, an Alexandria, Virginia- based group that monitors terrorist organizations.

Obama, who is vacationing in Hawaii, convened a secure conference call yesterday with John Brennan, homeland security and counter-terrorism adviser, and Denis McDonough, National Security Council chief of staff, the White House said. He was alerted between 9 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. Hawaii time, according to the White House, which is between 2 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. in Detroit.

The circumstances and timing of the Christmas incident echoed the attempt by the so-called shoe bomber, Richard Reid, to blow up American Airlines flight 63 to Miami from Paris on Dec. 22, 2001. Flight attendants and passengers subdued Reid as he tried to light explosives in his high-top sneakers.

Reid, a British citizen who declared himself to be a member of al-Qaeda, later pleaded guilty in the case and was sentenced to life in prison in January 2003.

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