HONOLULU (AP) — President Barack Obama says the intelligence community had information that it should have been pieced together before the Christmas Day attempted terror attack on a Detroit-bound airliner.

Obama says the security system failed to connect the dots.

He’s due an early report from his homeland security and counterterrorism adviser tomorrow on how a man with suspected ties to al-Qaida was able to board the Northwest Airlines flight with explosives.

His criticism comes as senior U.S. officials tell The Associated Press that intelligence authorities are looking at conversations between the suspect and at least one al-Qaida member. One official says a link between the suspect’s planning and al-Qaida’s goals is becoming more clear.

Meanwhile, the New York Times the government had — before Christmas — intelligence from Yemen that a Nigerian national was being readied for a terrorist attack.

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