Photo Credit: The Washington Post

President Obama has announced new procedures to fortify airline security after an alleged terrorist attempt to destroy a Detroit-bound U.S. airliner on Christmas Day. The president scheduled a meeting this afternoon in the Situation Room of the White House. The meeting will include Cabinet members and top security advisers from across the government.

The meeting is the result of two reviews the president ordered after a Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, tried to blow up a flight from Amsterdam on Dec. 25 as it prepared to land in Detroit. The reviews consisted of screening for air travel and on the U.S. terror watchlist system.

President Obama soon plans to outline his findings for the public, as well as implement a progression of new steps to advance the watch lists and prevent future terrorist attacks.

The Transportation Security Administration has already directed airlines to give full-body searches to U.S.-bound travelers from Yemen, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and 11 other countries.

From The New York Times:

The White House’s decision to mandate extra scrutiny for people flying into the United States from the 14 mostly Muslim countries provoked criticism from foreign officials and skepticism from some security experts that the measures would be effective.

In addition to affecting people from Yemen, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, all citizens from such countries as Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, Pakistan and Somalia must receive a pat down and an extra check of their carry-on bags before boarding a plane bound for the United States, officials said. Citizens of Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria — nations considered “state sponsors of terrorism” — face the same requirement.

Leaders of the affected countries argued that the United States had essentially declared their entire population suspects and created a two-tier system for air travel.

“It is unfair to discriminate against over 150 million people because of the behavior of one person,” Dora Akunyili, Nigeria’s information minister, said Monday, referring Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian accused of hiding explosives in his underwear on the Dec. 25 flight.