But we know that the no-fly list had 21, 000 people on it last year.
Of these, some 14, 000 are reported to be on the screening list and 4, 000 on the no-fly list.
BBC: Security reforms on the way following 'jet bomber' case
Mr Abdulmutallab's name was added to the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database, but not put on a no-fly list.
Fourth, the government will strengthen the criteria used to add people to its terrorist watch lists, particularly the no-fly list.
After the incident, Mr. Merah was added to a U.S. no-fly list.
If the new criteria had been in place before Christmas, AbdulMutallab would have been added to the no-fly list, the officials said.
"TSA did not flag this child as being on the no-fly list, " Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Sterling Payne told CNN in a statement.
"I'm not aware of a magic piece of intelligence somehow withheld that would have put AbdulMutallab on the no-fly list, " the official said.
And, finally, I'm ordering an immediate effort to strengthen the criteria used to add individuals to our terrorist watch lists, especially the no-fly list.
But "the info on him was not deemed specific enough to pull his visa or put him on a no-fly list, " the official said.
My name was recorded by TSA who also photographed the offending Ziploc, and I expect to show up on the ever-growing no-fly list sometime soon.
But "the info on him was not deemed specific enough to pull his visa or put him on a no-fly list, " a U.S. official said.
As the investigation drew law enforcement officials closer to finding Shahzad, he was placed on a federal no-fly list Monday, according to FBI Deputy Director John Pistole.
Washington (CNN) -- JetBlue Airways is apologizing for a "computer glitch" it blames for a family being told their 18-month-old daughter was on a government no-fly list.
Abdulmutallab was a Nigerian national who had been reported to Western officials by his own father as a potential threat, but had not qualified for the no-fly list.
For example, decisions could be taken to put someone on a no-fly list or a watch list based on one credible source, instead of the previous standard of using multiple sources.
His name, they said, never made it to a no-fly list, nor was he recommended for losing his visa because the NCTC classified him as "P3B, " which stands for a "possible" terrorist.
CNN: State Department failed to confirm terror suspect's visa
It now appears that weeks ago this information was passed to a component of our intelligence community, but was not effectively distributed so as to get the suspect's name on a no-fly list.
Counterterrorism officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which manages the U.S. no-fly list, also had collected information on Mr. Merah before the recent shootings in France, including the 2010 encounter, officials said.
Mr. Mareh was on the U.S.'s no-fly list as a suspected terrorist, according to people familiar with the matter, because in 2010 he had been in custody in Afghanistan, then sent back to France.
Third, this in turn fed into shortcomings in the watch-listing system which resulted in this person not being placed on the no-fly list, thereby allowing him to board that plane in Amsterdam for Detroit.
Speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the material, the officials said the United States has lowered the threshold for information considered important enough to put suspicious individuals on a no-fly list or revoke their visas.
"The intelligence community analysts who were working hard on immediate threats to Americans in Yemen did not understand the fragments of intelligence on what turned out later to be Mr. AbdulMutallab, so they did not push him onto the no-fly list, " he said.
In May, the U.S. Justice Department's inspector general issued a report on the watch-list process, including a flow chart describing how anyone suspected of terrorist ties passes through a series of lists, the most serious of which includes the Transportation Security Administration's no-fly list.
In this case, the government had information about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, but no one added him to either the no-fly list, which would have prevented him from boarding a U.S.-bound plane, or the selectee list, which would have triggered secondary screening that might have caught the explosives hidden under his clothes.
The US government's "no-fly" list has doubled in size over one year, according an Associated Press scoop.
In addition, it has emerged that Merah was on a U.S. no-fly-list, according to U.S. officials, which would have prevented him from boarding any U.S.-bound flight.
The official, who could not speak on the record because of the sensitive nature of the information, said the elder Abdulmutallab was deemed credible as a source, but did not have enough specific information to justify canceling his son's U.S. visa or putting him on a "no-fly" list.
Because AbdulMutallab didn't make the screening database, his name could not then be sent onto the watch lists maintained by the TSA: the "selectee list, " which law enforcement sources say includes about 14, 000 names, and the "no-fly" list, which those sources say bans some 4, 000 people from boarding any commercial flight destined for the United States.
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