captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> brown: good evening. i'm jeffrey brown. president obama said a totally unacceptable systemic failure led to the attack on the u.s. airliner. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. on the newshour tonight, the president today promised to act quickly to fix flaws in the nation's security system. >> brown: we'll look at the clampdown at airports and the potential trade-offs of stepped-up screening. test. >> spendthrift, it's an inconvenience to passengers. there are questions. >> what were the suspect's connection to yemen? >> ifill: and what were the suspect's connections to yemen, the embattled arab nation that has become a bastion for al qaeda terrorists. >> brown: then, ray suarez looks at a plan to fight poverty by improving education and healthcare south of the border. >> a mexican program designed to improve the lives of the poorest of the poor is being copied and studied around the world. i'll have a report. >> ifill: and the search for treatment for the mentally ill on the streets of india. >> brown: that's all ahead, on tonight's pbs newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour is provided by: >> this is the engine that connects abundant grain from the american heartland to haran's best selling whole wheat, while keeping 60 billion pounds of carbon out of the atmosphere every year. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> what makes us an engine for the economy? plants across america. nearly 200,000 jobs created. we see beyond cars. >> chevron. this is the power of human energy. >> intel. supporting math and science education for tomorrow's innovators. and the william and flora hewlett foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> brown: president obama sharpened his criticism today of security failures that led to last week's attempted airliner bombing. he spoke as new information emerged today on the main suspect. margaret warner has our report. >> warner: the path that led to this christmas day scene at detroit metro airport came more clearly into view today. authorities in yemen reported that the nigerian suspect, umar farouk abdul mutallab, had spent extended periods in yemen. but they said there was no indication he might be trouble and they were never told he was on any kind of u.s. watch list. >> ( translated ): we haven't received any further information concerning this person, that is to say, he is not on the yemeni list of most wanted suspected terrorists. he only visited yemen twice, his first visit was in 2004 and it lasted till 2005 and the second visit was last august and he left during the last week of december. he came under the pretense of studying the arabic language. security system. he said u.s. officials failed to act on a warning from abdulmutallab's own father. >> had this critical information was shared, it could have been compiled with other intelligence and a fuller, clearer picture of the suspect would have emerged. the warning signs would have triggered red flags and the suspect would have never been allowed to board that plane for america. >> an al-qaeda offshore shoot group claims it was behind the airliner plots- nd had provided the home-made bomb that failed to explode. abc news obtained this photo of the bomb, reportedly a packet of the chemical petn, sewn into his underpants. today's "washington post" cited federal sources saying there was enough explosive in the packet to blow a hole in the side of the airplane, if it had gone off. there were also reports today of extensive internet postings by abdul mutallab. his facebook profile shows him dressed in a pink polo shirt and lists 287 people as "friends". but his postings on the islamic forum website painted a picture of a conflicted, lonely man. in january of 2005, after a time at a british boarding school, he wrote: "i have no one to speak too [sic], no one to consult, no one to support me and i feel depressed and lonely. i do not know what to do. and then i think this loneliness leads me to other problems." in other postings, he seemed be struggling to balance his upbringing, as the privileged son of a prominent nigerian banker, with becoming an increasingly devout muslim. the emerging details left some in nigeria struggling to understand the how's and why's of what happened. nobody would believe before that a nigerian person would participate in such things, you know? >> warner: abdul mutallab remained today in a federal prison in michigan, but there were new questions about the kind of trial he'd face. republican congressman peter king of new york, on the house homeland security committee, said it would be a mistake to treat this as a criminal case. he called instead for a military tribunal. amid the new disclosures and controversies, the christmas day plot has already affected international air travel. this weekend, the u.s. transportation security administration or t.s.a. asked foreign airports to ratchet up security for flights to the united states. that caused security screening backups. at first carriers like air canada had to cancel some flights. then canadian authorities decided to limit u.s. bound passengers for now to one personal item and no carry-on luggage to speed up screening. martin alilio flew in today from montreal to dulles international airport, outside washington dc. >> the only luggage which was allowed was a computer and a computer case and a carry on was to be checked in. it took quite a while to get through the check in and there were a lot of people waiting on the line. >> warner: yet the new rules seemed to vary, depending on where the international flight originated. passengers on an in-bound flight from korea, including jason and noelani alcoba, who started in burma, found heavier security when they transited through seoul. >> when we got to korea we had to go through the regular checkpoint from transfer connections, and after that, right before we got to the plane right before we boarded there was a bunch of security, immigration officers who checked all our bags as well as our bodies. >> warner: passengers on a flight from london reported in- flight restrictions as well. alistair garland arrived in washington from brussels by way of london. >> so once we got on the plane they made an announcement about halfway through saying the final hour everybody was going to have to be seated and nobody could go and get their bags and nobody could go to restrooms. >> warner: domestic passengers reported fewer delays, and security lines were moving smoothly at dulles. >> there didn't seem to be any heightened security or anything like that. >> warner: though the passengers at dulles seem patient about the new restrictions, the larger question remains: would these stepped up airport and in flight measure put in place over the last few days have actually foiled the would be christmas day bomber? >> i think some of the measures are short term, knee-jerk reactions. of course all these measures can be out in place like blankets on the lap and not going to the toilet, but that is not going to stop a terrorist from doing things. >> warner: transportation expert kenneth button is a professor of public policy at george mason university. he says what's needed is better intelligence and sorting of people on government watch lists. >> the list is long, there are probably people missed and in this case there was miss communication. he was classified as a potential dangerous person without being a serious threat. there must be more detailed analysis and assessment of these individuals. >> warner: republican congressman peter hoekstra of michigan, on the house intelligence committee, called today for deploying the latest screening technology. current screening machines don't detect explosives. the t.s.a. has tried a variety of devices, with mixed results. so-called puffer machines use sprays of air to search people for bomb residue, but they've had repeated breakdowns. yet full body machines that see under people's clothing have raised privacy concerns. that's kept them from being deployed widely in the u.s. or europe. only 40 such devices have been installed at u.s. airports. the t.s.a. plans on installing 150 more next year. >> brown: and margaret is with me now in our studio. so the president called it a systemic failure? what else have you learned about what led up to that? >> it's apparent that the first step actually worked. the father came, gave his warning at the embassy at nigeria, and within 24 hours they met at the embassy, deemed it credible, and sent the warning on to washington. >> they did what they were supposed to do? >> they did, yes, very quickly. >> then? >> then at the nctc, as it's known, it gets murkier. the collective judgment was made that he would be put on the broadest possible terrorist -- potential terrorist list, which is 550,000 names, and it does not mark you for special screening at airports. what it does mark you for is they essentially open a file on you, and i'm told that the nsa began trolling to see if his name popped up, and other agencies were actively pursuing the yemen connection, but one state department official said to me that's where we were on december 25th. >> not clear yet why he was not put on a much more restricted watch list? >> no, it wasn't. this official told me it was the collective judgment of everybody involved, all the relevant agencies, that so far though the report was credible, there wasn't anything to corroborate it, no derogatory information that would meet the standard of going on the so-called screening list. that's still a huge list of 400,000, but that's basically decided through a separate acronym-laden agency or consortium run by the fbi, and that list is about 400,000. it appears, piecing all this together, that what was underway was the investigation that would ultimately perhaps nominate him to be put on this other list. >> all right. and then lastly, for now, there's the visa issue, right? what do we know about why the state department did not revoke the visa? >> i asked that question. state says they have the authority to revoke a visa, but that in terrorism cases they take their lead from the collective wisdom of these various intelligence agencies. one official pointed out to me, there are times when we've wanted to revoke a passport or visa, and the fbi says, no, don't, we want to follow this guy. they did not revoke the visa. the one glitch that appears to have occurred is that on the original alert sent to washington, it was not mentioned that he even had a visa. now, presumably that became part of his profile in this database, but not in the original alert. >> all right. margaret warner, thanks a lot. >> we'll have more >> ifill: we'll have more on the failed bomb plot later in the program. but first, for the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan in our newsroom. hari. >> sreenivasan: the death toll from a deadly suicide bombing in pakistan, grew to 43 today. thousands gathered in central karachi for funerals from yesterday's attack. it struck a shiite procession marking the holy day of ashoura. authorities appealed for calm today after shiites rioted in the wake of the bombing. in afghanistan there was word an afghan soldier shot and killed a us soldier, at a base in the west. afghan authorities said a member of the afghan army opened fire as an allied helicopter was about to land. two italian soldiers were wounded in the shooting. an investigation was under way. a crackdown on unrest in iran expanded with new arrests of opposition leaders. the roundup began yesterday, after at least eight people were killed in widespread protests on sunday. today, thousands of people rallied in support of the government. they echoed calls to punish opposition leaders for fomenting unrest. the latest to be arrested included relatives of nobel peace laureate shirin ebadi and opposition leader mir hossein mousavi. a representative of iran's supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei went further. he called for executing opposition leaders. china executed a british man today on drug smuggling charges. british leaders had pressed for clemency, over claims the man suffered from mental illness. we have a report from nina nannar of independent television news. >> reporter: despite last minute appeals for clemency from his family and the foreign office akmal shaikh's life was ended here by lethal injection in the early hours of this morning, the chinese authorities in the end refusing to accept claims that shaikh was mentally ill, hours later the chinese ambassador left the foreign office in london after what was described as a difficult conversation, china accused of failing in its basic human rights responsibilities. refused to even undertake a medical assessment prior to proceeding with this execution. by any standards of human rights at the beginning of the 21st century that cannot be acceptable. >> >> reporter: akmal shaikh a 53 year old father from north london was convicted of drug smuggling after 4kg of heroin was found in his suitcase when he arrived in urumshe in northwestern china. supporters say it had been planted there by professional criminals taking advantage of shaikh's bipolar disorder, but today the chinese foreign ministry said they'd seen no evidence that shaikh was mentally ill adding they hoped this would not damage relations between both countries. certainly been strong, the chinese warning today that no one has a right to comment on its judicial affairs. >> but emails written by shaikh and witness statements do prove mental illness according to one psychologist contacted by campaigners most probably a manic phase in which his ability to think rationally, control his impulses, think through the consequences of actions was severely compromised. >> many years ago, he was simply a successful businessman. now he's the first european to be executed in china for half a century, and is family is left saddened and stunned. >> sreenivasan: china executes more people each year than any other country. north korea confirmed today it has detained an arizona man for illegally entering the country. family members identified the man as 28-year-old christian missionary robert park. supporters said he crossed from china into north korea on christmas day, urging the release of political prisoners. the state news agency said today he is being investigated for illegal entry. on wall street today stocks broke a 6-day winning streak. the dow jones industrial average lost more than a point to close at 10,545. the nasdaq fell more than 2 points to close at 2288. those are some of the day's main stories. i'll be back at the end of the program with a preview of what you'll find tonight on the newshour's website. but for now back to gwen. >> ifill: and still to come on the newshour: the nigerian man who tried to blow up a us plane and his links to yemen; raising healthier, better educated children in mexico; and help for the mentally ill in india. but first: striking the right balance between security and sacrifice: the costs of preventing the next attack. for that, we turn to mary schiavo, former inspector general of the department of transporation. she's now an aviation attorney in private practice, and represents many of the families whose relatives were killed in the 9/11 attacks. and david schanzer. he's the director of the triangle center on terrorism and homeland security at duke university and the university of north carolina. i want to start by asking you what the president had to say today. he said there was a systemic failure, a mix of human and systemic failure. what does that mean to you? >> well, that means that there's more than one fail. obviously first and foremost that people followed the screening that failed, but obviously the various watch list. the watch lists were targeted and revealed to be a problem in the summer of this year. there was a special report de by the office of inspector general, congress has addressed these issues, they knew that the screening wasn't good as well, so many things failed. thus his calling it a systemic failure. >> david schanzer is there a technology in place that could have avoided this kind of failure? >> well, the full body scan machines can do a better job and they can improve the likelihood of finding something like that, but there's no 100% screening device that's going to be able to pick up everything. and i think you have to ask yourselves before you deploy, multibillion dollar technology, whether or not you get more bang for the buck out of things like intelligence, enhancement watch listing, more international cooperation. >> let's back up a minute. you said there's no 100% guarantee, and the president in fact said that himself today. but wouldn't people be satisfied knowing that since 9/11 we were at 75%, 80%? >> well, it's all probablistic. the question, though, is that we have an adaptive adversary that whatever technology we deploy, they're going to take steps to try to circumvent it. the problem is if you invest huge amounts of money in these technologies, they might become obsolete when the next type of threat comes up six months or a year from now. >> what do you think about that, mary schiavo? >> well, that's really not the way i would approach it at all. obviously we have to invest in the technology, because it's a technology that can spot so many of these threats. not 100%? well, it could be very close to 100%, because there are four different machines with four different technologies that can spot explosives and explosives materials and components of bombs. here we can't say we rely on profiling and intelligence, because that's what we were relying on september 11th, 2001. we don't always fit the profile. there have been young, beautiful, north korean women to someone from indiana in 1933 blowing up planes. we cannot rely on profiling and intelligence because we've proven that over the last 70 years it's failed. hardware is our last line of defense, and can be pretty close to 100%. >> what about that visa issue? if perhaps someone had taken seriously the father's complaint, isn't that something that could have caught before he even got to a machine? >> absolutely. it could have been caught. it should have been caught. once again, that points out the possibility of human failure. and that was pointed out, the government knew these watch lists were a problem as early as this summer. there was a report to congress. it has been declassified. it's on the internet, for heaven's sakes, that there was a real problem. this was the same thing we saw 8 1/2 years ago on september 11th, 2001. we weren't even sure who these people were. some had visas, some did not. whenever you rely on a named-based system, which is what the watch list is, that can also be circumstance crumb 70ed by phony documents and trading off documents once you're in a sterile area. >> david schanzer, seems like a lot of costs we're talking about here. the cost of the actual physical equipment, of getting the money. the cost of what you give up once you agree to this sort of -- what some people consider to be an invasive technology. what would you say the costs are? >> well, you've named some of them. the fact of the matter is we live in a world of limited resources. so we have to make tradeoffs and choices about which set of policies and which sets of technologies we want to deploy. your other guest mentioned four different types of machines. well, i don't think we're going to be able to deploy four different new types of machines, not only in the united states, but we would need to deploy these things