Uninvestigated lead about airline bomber wasn't unusual

The lack of attention was not unusual, according to U.S. intelligence officials, who said that thousands of similar bits of information flow into the National Counterterrorism Center each week from around the world. Only those that indicate a specific threat, or add to an existing body of knowledge about an individual, are passed along for further investigation and possible posting on airline and border watch lists.

“It’s got to be something that causes the information to sort of rise out of the noise level, because there is just so much out there,” one intelligence official said.

The report entered on Abdulmutallab, 23, after his father’s Nov. 19 visit to the embassy was “very, very thin, with minimal information,” said a second U.S. official familiar with its contents…

Abdulmutallab’s name would have bounced back if he appeared on the U.S. “no-fly” or “selectee” watch lists. Although the size of the government’s overall terrorist database has expanded since such information began to be systematically collected in 2003, the number of people prohibited from boarding a domestic or U.S.-bound aircraft, or subject to special scrutiny and notification of U.S. law enforcement, has shrunk, from an estimated 30,000 in early 2007 to 18,000 today.