French Tipped Off Terrorists

[KMAN]

French Tipped Off Terrorists

The no-shows on a Paris-to-Los Angeles flight who are now being sought by U.S. authorities may have escaped the dragnet due to French authorities quickly announcing that the cancellation of Christmas flights to Los Angeles were ordered for security reasons.

According to a report in the Washington Times, the premature announcement resulted in "a chorus of groans" from the Department of Homeland Security to the White House.

An unnamed U.S. source is cited as saying that Washington believed that the longer publicity could have been avoided, "the greater the chance to catch anybody else who was suspected of being involved. The French announcement caught everyone off guard."

Nine persons on the passenger list for Air France Flight AF068 to Los Angeles on Dec. 24 were questioned and released by French authorities, who concluded that the detained passengers did not meet any suspect profiles.

However, the U.S. concerns centered on passengers whose names matched those on a U.S. terrorism watch list – and who failed to show up for the flights, according to the Times report.

Among the no-shows was a Tunisian passenger reported to be a licensed pilot and suspected of having ties to al-Qaeda.

Air France has resumed normal service to Los Angeles.


Hey Libs - This is why there were no arrests!!!!!

KMAN

 

[Phaedrus]

Or maybe, just maybe ...

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Terror Suspect Turned Out to be a Welsh Insurance Agent

Paul Webster and Owen Bowcott
The Guardian

French irritation over US controls on transatlantic flights was reinforced yesterday when the interior ministry revealed that American intelligence based its suspicions on passengers' surnames only.

This led to a child with a name similar to a Tunisian terrorist, a Welsh insurance agent and an elderly Chinese woman restaurant owner being questioned by counter-terrorist police when several flights from Paris to the US were cancelled shortly before Christmas.

Three other "suspects" who were questioned were French citizens with Arab-sounding names.

All the suspects' names, supplied by the US, were found merely to be homonyms - similar in sound or spelling to those of wanted al-Qaida activists.

"The US information was followed up in every case and thoroughly investigated," an interior ministry official said.

"Unfortunately," the spokesman added, "the Americans did not supply either birthdate or first name in any of these cases, so we had to hold up all passengers and in some cases carry out lengthy inquiries into family backgrounds in case there was a link."

US agents have the right to inspect flight lists of every company in the world through computer links, a situation which has concerned France's official civil liberties watchdog, the CNIL.

Yesterday it emerged that another Air France plane made an unscheduled landing in St John's, Newfoundland, on New Year's Day because of security concerns.

The plane was on its way to Paris from New York when the pilot was ordered to divert.

The jet landed without incident and the 260 passengers on board were taken off. The flight resumed about four hours later.

Officials comparing luggage and passenger lists believed there was unaccompanied baggage on the plane, but a search found nothing suspicious.

So far, despite French airline pilots' safety fears over the use of sky marshals, France has strictly conformed to all American demands, including the use of armed guards.

Decisions are in the hands of the prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who has made no comment on the latest mix-up.

Just before the airline cancellations, France ordered the police's SAS-style protection squad, the GIGN, to supply armed men for flights to the US.

Between two and six police officers are now operating on all planes to the US depending on the number of passengers.

Police sources said that they carried only non-lethal weapons, including electric stun guns, and would employ methods against hijackers that had been the subject of training exercises for several years. The guards were chosen on American insistence.
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Phaedrus