Obama Returns From Hawaii to Meetings on Terrorism
President Barack Obama will meet with White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan and hear from CIA officials Monday about the ongoing review of security measures following the Christmas Day attempted airline bombing, according to White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton.The sessions are a prelude to a larger meeting Tuesday in which various agencies will report to the president on steps taken to address what the administration has acknowledged was a failure of the Homeland Security system to stop a planned terrorist attack.Burton briefed reporters aboard Air Force One as Obama headed back to Washington, D.C., from his Hawaii vacation. Burton emphasized that changes to security procedures — including the updating of various terrorist watch lists — are occurring even as the review is under way.He also described Obama as eager to push forward aggressively with his domestic agenda, including an effort to spur job creation. “You can anticipate there’s going to be a very heavy push to get Americans back to work, to get the economy as strong as it can be, along with some of the other things that we left behind at the end of the year to get finished up here — health care, financial regulatory reform, things like that,— Burton said.Obama returned to the White House earlier Monday.