Posted on 12/24/2003 11:24:23 AM PST by yonif
PARIS (Reuters) - France said Wednesday that national carrier Air France had canceled three U.S.-bound flights from Paris due to security concerns. The French interior ministry said the flights were canceled at the request of the U.S. embassy in Paris. The United States is on a heightened state of alert ahead of Christmas and the Washington Post reported that foreign airlines were under particular scrutiny.
An Air France spokeswoman confirmed that a flight due to leave Paris at 1235 GMT for Los Angeles had been grounded "for security reasons."
The French prime minister's office said the cancellations had been prompted by information obtained from anti-terrorism operations. An interior ministry spokesman said that two other flights to the United States had also been canceled. It was not clear whether these flights were bound for Los Angeles or elsewhere.
The U.S. government raised its terror alert to the second highest level Sunday and warned Americans there was a high risk of attacks around the holidays in the United States that could be bigger than those of September 11, 2001.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that new U.S. intelligence had prompted greater scrutiny into whether foreign airports and airlines pose a security threat.
U.S. security officials were thoroughly checking the identities of foreign flight crews and had questioned a few people with names that appeared to be similar to those on the FBI's "watch lists" of suspects, the report said, citing administration sources.
Officials declined to identify the air carriers involved, the newspaper reported.
Passengers coming into at least one major U.S. international airport on Air France and flights from Mexico will be subject to more security procedures beginning Wednesday, the report said, citing industry sources.
France has not raised its security alert for the Christmas holiday period.
More likely LAX to Paris, where the fuel tanks would be full, if the target were Las Vegas.
There's no reason to thank them, since they had no choice but to abide by the U.S. request. If they refused, these flights would not have been permitted to enter U.S. airspace -- and it's a long way back to Paris from the east coast of the United States.
Look at the map, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria are now almost island like by the fact that no one can cross Iraq.
We are making headway but it's not a NINTENDO war.
Remember Bush = Headway
Clinton = Head.
You're right. They are known for harboring terrorists and islamofacists. The Ayatollah(Iran) and many other Ayatollahs, lived in France for many years before coming back to Iran and upstaging the Shah of Iran. This, IMO, is when the suicide bombings and all the other terroristism grew to where it's at today, thanks to the mentality of Ayatollah Khomeni and France(harborer of Islamofacist terrorists).
According to multiple news sources, they honored our request only after we escalated it from a "request" to "strong pressure" to an outright threat to refuse to allow the planes to enter US airspace.
No. It's common for small towns and counties with a lot of farms to compare the number of people to the number of cows or chickens or sheep in the area when discussing the size of the place to outsiders.
I didn't realize that France was THIS stupid. They really are suicidal.
67 = 68 = 89, 69 = 69, 70 =OL = ?, 71=IL=51......Just playing out loud on my keyboard.
Wonder if any of these planes would have got to a common point+- at some time and the time.
The timing of the planes of 9-11 made the first hit (1)at just before the end of the morning news....after that, the timing was 2,3,4.
I picked up the pattern 2+2 = 4 very early and I see the possibility of 2+2 again and believe that is also what THEY are seeing plus much more. Hopefully, we'll pick up some additional chatter to take them down but I believe the rule is (according to the manual) "no inter-terrorist communications once an operation is started".
You mean they believe terrorism is a credible threat? Since when? Oh yeah, since it may be aimed at them.
A cartoon from LeMonde
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