Posted on 12/25/2003 7:28:07 PM PST by Mark Felton
American and French officials yesterday traded mutual recriminations over the failure to snare any terrorists in the security operation that grounded six Air France flights in and out of Los Angeles.
Bush administration officials expressed frustration that al-Qa'eda operatives might have escaped capture after word leaked, early this week, of American concerns about flights from France to the United States over the Christmas period.
One official said Washington had been hoping to keep the US-French negotiations confidential, adding that the hope was that "we would be able to lure some of these people in".
However, a French interior ministry spokesman said little evidence of a terrorist plot had been found.
French authorities released seven men - one French, one American and several Algerians - whose names were found to be on US watch-lists.
The seven men were all due to board a flight on Wednesday and had been briefly questioned. French authorities found nothing to suggest the men had terrorist links.
A spokesman for the French prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, said the decision to cancel the flights came early on Christmas Eve after American authorities notified France that "two or three" suspicious people, possibly Tunisian nationals, were on the manifests of three Los Angeles-bound flights.
M Raffarin's spokesman added that the United States had threatened to refuse the planes permission to land if they took off.
A French judicial official said the name of a Tunisian national with a pilot's licence had appeared on the American list of suspicious people who might attempt to board a flight. But French intelligence officials determined that the man was in Tunisia and had no plans to leave the country.
The official added that the Tunisian had no criminal record and did not belong to any Islamic radical groups.
The cancellations, on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, stranded hundreds of passengers on both sides of the Atlantic.
US sources hit back at French scepticism, saying American intelligence agencies had intercepted e-mails from the al-Qa'eda terrorist group suggesting another September 11-style attack was being plotted for the Christmas holiday.
The al-Qa'eda messages referred specifically to Air France and even gave a flight number, officials said. Other warnings have been issued about flights by the Mexican carrier, Aeromexico, it was reported.
US officials said they fear Air France has been infiltrated by Islamic extremists and have criticised French co-operation in providing details of passengers on US-bound flights.
On Monday, the US homeland security secretary, Tom Ridge, raised the nation's terrorist-attack warning level to it's second-highest stage, orange - "high" alert.
Mr Ridge said terrorist "chatter" indicated that "extremists abroad" are anticipating "near-term attacks" that they believe will "rival or exceed" those experienced in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001.
Following the cancellations, Los Angeles airport, the nation's second busiest, was put under an extraorinary security clampdown.
Private cars were banned from dropping off passengers or picking them up at terminals and vehicles entering the complex were searched by armed police who used mirrors to inspect the undersides of cars.
The airport was the target of a millennium bomb plot almost four years ago, which was thwarted when one of the bombers was arrested after crossing into the United States from Canada with explosives in his car.
Mobile anti-aircraft missile systems have been deployed around Washington DC, and US and Canadian fighter pilots remain on high alert.
In London, police boosted security around the US embassy. Vehicles more than 7ft wide were restricted from entering surrounding streets late on Christmas Eve.
The precaution was introduced as lorries have been used in suicide attacks around the world, and against British targets in the bombings in Istanbul last month.
A Scotland Yard statement said: "This measure is being carried out in the light of worldwide events, particular current concerns about US interests and the fact that security in London remains at a high level. We would stress that this restriction is being put in place on a precautionary basis.
"We would reiterate our earlier appeals for the public to remain vigilant and aware and report anything suspicious to police."
The so-called "ring of steel" surrounding key sites in the City of London was extended earlier this month.
Zee French authorities found nothing to suggest zee men had terrible stinks.
"Zay smell like zee French men so we let them go!"
Too logical. The democRATs would never stand for it.
Now that's a plan I can get behind. Let them all go over there, one way tickets preferably.
Well my thinking is .. if they trust the French so much .. Prove it
Posted on 12/23/2003 2:20:52 PM PST by anotherview
EU Parliament Member: Intifada is European Proxy War Against America
21:22 Dec 23, '03 / 28 Kislev 5764
EU Member of Parliament Ilka Schroeder delivered an address entitled, The European Union, Israel, and Palestinian Terrorism at the Center for German Studies of Ben Gurion University on Monday.
The Europeans, explained MP Schroeder, supported the Palestinian Authority with the aim of becoming its main sponsor, and through this challenge the U.S. and present themselves as the future global power. Therefore, the Al-Aksa Intifada should be understood as a proxy war between Europe and the United States.
"It is an open secret within the European Parliament that EU aid to the Palestinian Authority has not been spent correctly," MP Schroeder said during a recent address in New York. The European Parliament does not intend to verify whether European taxpayers' money could have been used to finance anti-Semitic murderous attacks. Unfortunately, this fits well with European policy in this area."
MP Schroeder, a twenty five year old member of the German Green Party, began her political career protesting the war in Kosovo and denouncing globalization. A year ago MP Schroeder set her sights on an issue long avoided by members of the radical Left - the diverting of some of the 250 million in annual aid for the Arabs of Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza) to corrupt officials and terrorist groups bent on Israel's destruction.
MP Schroeder managed to initiate an inquiry by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) into the issue despite significant pressure from her colleagues and fellow parliamentarians to ignore the issue. MP Schroeder has derided her colleagues who wish to ignore the issue of EU money funding terrorism against Jews as "simple-minded anti-Semites." She has also accused EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten of "winking approval of terrorist attacks funded by the EU."
In her Ben Gurion University address, MP Schroeder claimed the issue of the EU funding terrorist groups points to a broader European goal, namely, to use the Middle East conflict to challenge US hegemony.
"The primary goal of the EU is the internationalization of the conflict in order to underline the need for its own mediating role," she argues, warning that renewed European calls for a multinational force in the region - heard most recently by the head of the largest political bloc in the parliament - combined with heightened levels of anti-Semitism in Europe and the Arab world, could spell disaster for Jews everywhere. "The Palestinians are playing the ugly role of being the cannon fodder for Europe's hidden war against the U.S.," she adds.
While MP Schroeder's call for accountability in EU funding was supported by nearly one quarter of the 626-member parliament, she appears grimly convinced that her efforts to expose anti-Zionism, which she sees as Europe's polite version of anti-Semitism, has come to naught. MP Schroeder has been embraced by many Jewish groups in Europe and the U.S. and decided to visit Israel for her first time in order to further research the E.U.s role in the region.
"There is no difference in the consciousness of an average member of the European Parliament and an average German peace demonstrator, and I consider this to be a mixture of naivete, moralism, anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Zionism and an altogether serious danger," she said during her U.S. speaking tour. "It is against these trends that my efforts are directed."
Published: 19:49 December 23, 2003 Last Update: 21:22 December 23, 2003
The Vichys'seem to be in control in Paris.
Jews and Capitalists beware.
Will the Bush administration call on the socialist Chirac to denounce JIHAD?
I am Totally BLOWN AWAY by this information!
Should the "Premises" of this Lady's "Concepts" be TRUE, then the "EU" has been "Behind" the MASSACRE of HUNDREDS of INNOCENTS over the past few years!
IF SO--WHY is this woman still Alive??
The REAL PROBLEM IS, WHO is "Funding" the Psychopaths who feel Compelled to Kill the Innocent?
IF--as this Woman asserts--the "Funding" comes from the "EU", There can be NO Question about our "Action!"
I HOPE this Woman is Incorrect--because if she is Correct, we are AT WAR with Europe.
Considering the Fact that we sacrificed Tens of Thousands of our Youth to SAVE these People, we will NOT BE PLEASED to discover that They are attempting to Undermine our Efforts to Pacify the Middle East!!
As the "Old Saying Goes,"--"Payback is a Bitch!!"
Doc
Just the very public request from W to chirac would be enough of a message...but the response would be as interesting as telling IMO.
What to make of the recent "NO MUSLIM HEADWARE" law?
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