always on. have a great night. >> tonight an al-qaeda group brags that it was behind the attempt to blow up a u.s. jetliner and says it will keep trying. plus cbs news uncovers disturbing web postings that show the suspect was a lonely young man who harbored jihad fantasies for years. i'm harry smith. also tonight the security failure. there were warnings from the suspect's own family. he was on a watch list so why didn't anyone check to see if he had a u.s. visa? president obama calls for a full review. and there's confusion in some airports amid the new security crackdown. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with katie couric. >> smith: good evening. katie is off. president obama says u.s. authorities will not rest until they find everyone involved in the attempt to blow up delta northwest flight 253 on christmas day. the terror trail leads straight to the middle east. today an al-qaeda group based in yemen said it supplied the explosives to suspect umar farouk abdulmutallab and claimed the bombing attempt failed due to a technical problem. mr. obama pledged on the a complete review of the watch list system to prevent other potential terrorists from entering the u.s. in-flight security measures were eased slightly today but at the airports long lines remain and passengers still face additional screening. we have a team of correspondents covering the story here in the united states and beyond. we begin with national correspondent jim axelrod in michigan where the suspect is being held tonight. jim? >> reporter: harry, abdulmutallab is being held in this federal prison behind me here in milan michigan. federal prosecutors say they want a dna sample from him to see if he can be connected to other terror plots. especially now that al qaeda leaders say they launched him. ♪ al qaeda claims it was behind the attempted attack on flight 253, providing abdulmutallab with technically advanced advice. the terrorist organization says the attack was in response to u.s.-assisted air strikes against them in yemen threatening today we are bringing you slaughter and we have prepared for you men who cherish death just like you cherish life. abdulmutallab told investigators al qaeda operatives in yemen made him underwear with the p.e.t.n. sewn into the band to escape detection. a syringe is being analyzed which the f.b.i., containing an liquid possibly lighter fluid. the al qaeda connection still has not been verified by investigators but the explosive and the method are are similar to those used by shoe bomber richard reid eight years ago. >> showing that if al qaeda was indeed involved in this that they are going to methods that have proven reliable in the past. >> reporter: in the last few days a time line of abdulmutallab's past has come into focus. cbs news has learned he studied in yemen in 2005. he then headed to england. this video is believed to be him with an islamic student group there. he graduated from university college in london in 2008 and then traveled to egypt and dubai. his family says he was in dubai through july studying at a branch of an australian university that lost contact with him after that. the government now says that abdulmutallab was there between august and december. his father, a prominent banker in nigeria, was so concerned the family said in a statement today he reported the lack of contact to nigerian security agencies two months ago and warned the u.s. embassy in november that his son was involved with, quote, religious extremists. the next they saw him it was in pictures like these after passengers say they stopped abdulmutallab from trying to take down the northwest flight. >> i saw a fellow passenger have a guy in like a choke hold. he took him down the aisle to the business class section of the plane which was in front of us. >> reporter: abdulmutallab will make his first court appearance a week from friday january 8. that's when he'll have his detention hearing at the federal courthouse in detroit. harry. >> smith: jim axelrod in michigan tonight. thanks. as jim reported, abdulmutallab comes from a prominent nigerian family and by all accounts he enjoyed a comfortable childhood and received a quality education. so what drove him into the ranks of violent jihadists? richard roth has that part of the story from london. >> reporter: the internet never forgets the saying goes. and abdulmutallab's digital trail leads back to boarding school in west africa where in 2005 he was chatting under the screen name faruok 1986. age 18 he paints an on-line portrait of alienation. i have no friend he writes far from home at a school with few muslims, no one to consult, no one to support me and i feel depressed. he explains he's nigerian from a wealthy family with a home in london, even gives his name, umar farouk and on february 20, 2005, he hints at his dreams. >> basically they are jihad fantasies he writes. i imagine how the great jihad will take place, how the muslims will win and rule the whole world adding, do i have to clarify anything further? back and forth on the anonymous internet he asks for advice and gets it. about religion and sex and college. he wants to study engineering and business management, considers stanford and cal tech and decides on university college london saying the islamic environment is a factor. i hope to get over my loneliness when i get to university, he wrote. and here in london it seems he did. on campus he became president of the islamic students' union. online january 26, 2007 he listed seminars for what was called the war on terror week. february 26, 2007 he listed seminars for what was called the war on terror week. speakers would include this man. >> we know that it is incumbent upon all of us to support the jihad of our brothers and sisters in these countries when they are facing the oppression of the west. >> reporter: we don't know whether abdulmutallab heard those words but by his own account he was ready for the message. british authorities say his path to terrorism wasn't unique. what they want to know now is who helped him. richard roth, cbs news, london. >> smith: british authorities put the suspect on a watch list after they denied him a visa. it might have raised red flags in this country but it did not. one of many warning signs that were missed. chief investigative correspondent armen keteyian has exclusive details on the frightening lapse in security. >> reporter: cbs news has learned it was only after umar farouk abdulmutallab launched his terrorist attack aboard flight 253 that the u.s. state department discovered he had an active u.s. visa through june 2010, a shocking failure of an airport security system drawing ever-increasing fire. >> there were definite errors made here. >> reporter: as first reported by cbs news today, the u.s. government twice failed to find abdulmutallab had an active multiple entry u.s. visa. issued on june 16, 2008 at the u.s. embassy in london. according to a law enforcement source, the first failure came on november 19, 2009. the same day abdulmutallab's father warned officials at the u.s. embassy in nigeria about his son. then again on november 20 in washington after dr. concerns were forwarded there, officials failed for a second time to figure out the 23-year-old nigerian national held an active u.s. visa. >> when you have a father reporting information about his son that he believes his son may be leaning towards extremists views he doesn't know where his son is, that's enough for me to be able to say we need to find out what this individual is doing, where he's at, who he's involved with as soon as possible. >> reporter: the visa breakdown is one of a raft of potential red flags that were somehow missed such as abdulmutallab paid nearly $3,000 in cash for his plane ticket and checked no bags. carrying aboard only a small bag for a scheduled two-week trip. how did screening add two airports fail to detect an estimated 76 grams of the explosive p.e.t.n.? and a syringe packed with a chemical catalyst concealed in a special pouch sewn into his underwear? why don't the dutch use these body scan machines that can detect explosives on u.s.-bound passengers? amsterdam airport has 17 of them. the dutch say the u.s. won't allow it. u.s. officials say that's just not true. either way experts say the suspect shouldn't have gotten through. >> if he would appear on any flight, he would be suspected and be a chemical material on his body would be found very easily. >> reporter: despite such criticism homeland security head janet napolitano took a most positive approach on sunday. >> the system worked. the system has worked. everybody reacted the way they should. >> reporter: today, however, that too had changed. >> you said the system worked. do you want to take that back or rephrase that? >> i think taking that phrase out of context doesn't make much sense. obviously we are now going back and looking at what were the events that led up to that individual getting on this plane? >> reporter: late today a state department spokesman said that the visa issue, quote, clearly this was a very near miss and we need to review the procedures, harry. >> smith: armen keteyian, thanks. bob orr is our justice correspondent. he joins us tonight from pittsburgh. bob, i want to talk to you about this explosive, p.e.t.n. had the suspect used it properly, would it have been able to bring down that plane? >> very likely, harry. 76 grams of petn would fit in a pouch a little smaller than that notebook. it doesn't seem like much but fully detonated coupled with air pressure forces and high winds likely could have torn the plane apart. the suspect was trying to set it off at a lower altitude. it would have done less damage but a hole may have ensued and caused controlability problems and maybe fire and evacuation would have been difficult. to give you an idea how powerful this might have been, take a look at this test on a bomb the one the size richard reid tried to set off. a pretty powerful explosive. that was only about half as much material, harry, as what abdulmutallab is said to have carried aboard the flight. >> smith: he was sitting in seat 19-a. why was that significant? >> might have been a coincidence or it might have been a strategy. 19-a is right against the wall of the cabin and right where the wing meets the fuselage. also right there a couple of fuel tannings. he may have been hoping to leverage the power blast by rupturing one of the fuel tanks or maybe both fuel tanks. that could have been in his mind, harry. >> smith: how significant is it that al qaeda in yemen has taken credit for some of this? >> i think maybe quite significant. in the past, the so-called franchisees, al qaeda in the arabian peninsula have focused on nationalistic issues. this may be the first attempt to attack the far enemy, that being the u.s., harry. >> smith: bob orr with us tonight, thank you. president obama interrupted his vacation in hawaii today to outline a series of steps to make sure what happened on christmas day does not happen again. chip reid is with the president in honolulu. chip, good evening. >> harry, it never looked good for a president to be on vacation during a crisis. what the president tried to do today is convince the american people that even though he's spending a lot of time here in hawaii golfing and picnicking on the beach he's also doing everything he can to keep the american people safe. the president left no doubt that the nigerian suspect did not act alone. >> we will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable. the american people should be assured that we are doing everything in our power to keep you and your families safe and secure during this busy holiday season. >> reporter: the president listed the actions he's ordered even while on vacation including more air marshals on international flights, enhanced screening of passengers, and a review of the screening system and the terrorist watch system. both of which failed in this case. he also praised the heroic actions of the passengers and crew of flight 253. >> an alert and courageous citizenry are far more resilient than an isolated extremist. as a nation, we will do everything in our power to protect our country. >> reporter: the president said his administration will do everything in its power to defeat america's enemies overseas a and not just in afghanistan and pakistan. he broadened the battle field to include somalia and yemen. >> smith: chip reid with the president in hawaii, thanks. the security changes are at the airports and on planes were sudden and strict. despite that, there were no major widespread delays on flights within the united states today. but wyatt andrews tells us it was a completely different story for international passengers. >> reporter: if you were flying from overseas into america today, security was intense. for these passengers in-bound from nassau, every bag and every one of them was searched twice. >> they did another patdown. >> reporter: right before you got on the plane. >> they searched all our bags and took everything out and everything. >> reporter: in some airports, the number ever of carry-on bags is being restricted. in montreal, it's one carry-on each. and once passengers are on the plane, the captain announces the other restrictions. >> >> reporter: u.s. officials say for now, the extra patdowns and bag searches are the reality for incoming international flights. the one carry-on rule seems to vary by country. as for domestic flights, officials say they will increase the searches by explosive-sniffing dogs and do more gate screening. but said passengers should not expect the same thing at every airport. >> it was a no-problem day. >> reporter: and that's what we found in washington. some passengers breezed through security. others did not. >> they went through swabs. they took all my christmas gifts out. they opened them up. >> reporter: but many security experts say even these new procedures will not reliably detect explosives. and that despite some privacy concerns, airports need more of these. invasive full-body screening machines. >> there's not a guarantee but they're far more likely to find it than a metal detector which absolutely it won't. >> reporter: it's important for flyers going out this week to know that not one of these extra security precautions is permanent. in fact, some airline pilots are already being told quietly right now they're free to relax some of these in-flight restrictions as they see fit. depending on where you are, the extra bag searches, the extra body patdowns may happen and they may not happen. so in short, it's supposed to be a completely random system, harry, to make it less predictable for the terrorists. >> smith: all right. wyatt andrews at reagan national tonight, thanks. coming up next on the "cbs evening news," targeting al 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[ panting ] ♪ ♪ all alone all day ♪ on and off and counting sheep ♪ >> like a phoenix rising from the ashes, a local pet surprises everybody making a comeback. that's in minutes in your only local news at 7:00. >> smith: the d is ending as it began with concern over terror in the skies. but don teague tells us it appears many travelers have been blessed with a perfect gift: patience. >> reporter: new restrictions, more searched luggage and regular frisking. for airline passengers, there's no holiday from these dangerous times. >> i'm still concerned. >> reporter: while tighter security can be a hassle, many passengers are taking it in stride. >> they're doing something to protect us. it can be a pain in the butt but it's something that we should be had appreciate. >> reporter: in los angeles leticia lewis says she is more vigilant. >> ready to call 91 in the event of something looking suspicious. >> reporter: what isn't clear is how tighter security will affect beleaguered business travelers. >> i will drive more and the terrorist won. that's all there is to it. >> reporter: maybe it's time, say travel experts, that we change the way we think of flying. after all, the good old days when you could leave your shoes on and take your coffee with you through security aren't coming back. >> be patient. get to the airport early and change the culture of how you travel. don't dress to go to the airport. undress to go to the airport. >> reporter: undressed, overstressed, and behind schedule. flying for some takes faith. >> it's concerning but you have to fly anyway. you know, i trust the lord. >> reporter: traveling on a wing and a prayer. and a patdown. don teague, cbs news, dallas. >> smith: that's the "cbs evening news" for katie couric i'm harry smith. i'll see you back here tomorrow morning on the early show. good night. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> good evening, tonight in your only local news at 7:00, unfriendly skies. al qaeda claims responsibility for an attempted attack on an airliner. now airport security is tighter than ever. boiling point, 50,000 people have already reached it in our area. they've got to boil their tap water before they can use it. and blinded by the light. a driver claims he couldn't see two pedestrians this morning because of the bright sunshine. i'm ramando trull. rockville police say a man ran down two women, one 63 years old, the other 20, as they