Controversial scanners will be used on Amsterdam-US flights

As the US is investigating the "systemic failure" of its security apparatus, the Netherlands released a report on what happened at the Dutch airport where the would-be bomber transferred.

"It would not be exaggerating to say the world has escaped a disaster," Dutch home affairs minster Guusje ter Horst said at a press conference on Wednesday. But she added that although Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's thwarted attack on flight NW253 from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day was prepared professionally, it was poorly executed.

Ter Horst presented the results of the preliminary investigation by the Dutch authorities on behalf of justice minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin, who is currently on vacation in the US. The suggestion raised Monday that the suspect met an accomplice at Schiphol is still under investigation.

The minister said no mistakes were made at Schiphol airport, as all safety procedures were carried out properly. Abdulmutallab held a valid visa to the US and the passenger list submitted to the US authorities prior to the flight did not trigger them to demand extra security measures. The suspect did not leave the customs area during his transfer and was subjected to a metal detection check, a statement from the ministers read. "This check didn't register anything out of the ordinary."

After consulting with US authorities, the justice ministry has decided the unused body scanners at the airport will soon be deployed at the airport for use on passengers travelling to the US, even though a decision on their routine use is still pending in Brussels. Until all radio wave scanners are in place, passengers on US bound flights will be searched at Schiphol.

"Our view now is that the use of millimetre wave scanners would certainly have helped detect that he had something on his body, but you can never give 100 percent guarantees,"Ter Horst said. However, the press release said Abdulmutallab wore the improvised explosive device on a part of his body where "it would not have been found during a search either."

While the Dutch authorities say they can not be blamed for Abdulmutallab carrying 80 grammes of pentaerythritol tetranitrate on the plane, US president Obama said Tuesday the intelligence community had bits of information that were not pieced together. Had they been "the warning signs would have triggered red flags, and the suspect would have never been allowed to board that plane for America," Obama said. The suspect's father had warned the US embassy about his son's extreme views and possible trip to Yemen.

Abdulmutallab had been registered in one government database, but never made it onto more restrictive lists that would have caught the attention of US counterterrorist screeners. The warnings also did not result in Abdulmutallab's visa being revoked.