Obama Gets Preliminary Report Today

Obama's Hawaiian vacation isn’t much of a break. On Thursday, the president will receive a preliminary report on the attempted Christmas Day bombing of Flight 253 over Detroit. The report will focus on how alleged bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was able to board a flight to America despite his suspected terrorist ties, and will explore how to avoid such incidents in the future. White House officials said Obama was unlikely to comment publicly about the report, although he'd probably talk with his national security team several times during the day. Meanwhile, the Detroit Free Press reports that Abdulmutallab took a two-week-long course on Islamic manners and history at the non-profit Al Maghrib Institute in Houston, Texas in 2008, a privilege for which he paid $2,250. The institute's vice president stressed that the organization discourages talk about jihad and terrorism.