White House to release security report Thursday on Christmas bombing attempt

The White House will release an unclassified version of the intelligence report on the failed Christmas Day bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Detroit.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Wednesday that the review conducted by homeland security adviser John Brennan will be released Thursday and that President Barack Obama will make a statement about it.

The review will identify how U.S. intelligence agencies failed to paint a complete picture of the attack before Nigerian national Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to bomb the plane.

The review "will be very comprehensive," Gibbs said at his daily press briefing.

The press secretary added that Brennan "synthesized" much of the information for the president and that the administration's national security team walked through the review Tuesday.

"The president got a very detailed look yesterday at what John has found," Gibbs said.

Obama has already blamed the intelligence community for failing to foil the plot. Meanwhile, Republicans have accused the Obama administration of not responding forcefully enough to the attack.

Gibbs's announcement comes a day after the administration announced it will halt transfers of Guantanamo Bay detainees to Yemen. The 23-year-old Abdulmutallab reportedly contacted an al Qaeda cell in Yemen about the attack.

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