Report: U.S. learned of Abdulmutallab plot ... while Flight 253 was in the air

“The people in Detroit were prepared to look at him in secondary inspection,” said a senior law enforcement official who requested anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. “The decision had been made. The . . . database had picked up the State Department concern about this guy, that this guy may have been involved with extremist elements in Yemen. . . . They could have made a decision on whether to stop him from getting on the plane.”…

Although U.S. border enforcement officials have access to passenger data based on reservation lists and use them for preliminary assessments, the in-depth vetting by Customs and Border Protection only begins once the flight manifest has been generated, just a few hours before takeoff, and focuses on potential actions to take at the U.S. border, the official said.

As a result, the intelligence about Abdulmutallab was discovered in a database by Customs and Border Protection inspectors based at the National Targeting Center in Washington once the plane was airborne, the other law enforcement officials said.