US had intel "about a possible Al Qaeda attack around the holidays"

The story gets more intriguing by the day:

The United States government had intelligence about a possible Al Qaeda attack around the holidays and had more information about where the suspect had been and what some of his plans were, an official said.

Some of the information at the time was partial or incomplete and it was not obvious that it was connected, the official said, but in retrospect it now appears clear that had it all been examined together it would have pointed to a pending attack involving the Nigerian suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Mr. Abdulmutallab allegedly tried to carry out a bombing on a Detroit-bound flight Christmas Day.

The official said the administration is “increasingly confident” that Al Qaeda had a role in the planned attack, as the group’s Yemeni branch has publicly claimed.

Something didn't work. Someone better fix it.