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Terror Concerns Trigger Security Talks
2 hours, 32 minutes ago

By BRAD FOSS, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Intelligence warnings of possible terrorist plots to use aircraft against American targets have prompted the cancellation of six Air France flights between Los Angeles and Paris and triggered intense security talks between U.S. officials and their foreign counterparts.

The flight cancellations added to Christmas holiday tensions that have been high since President Bush (news - web sites) raised the national terror alert level to orange, the second highest level, on Sunday. U.S. security officials have been closely monitoring activity at airports, train stations and public buildings. Police randomly stopped cars near the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

The Air France flights, scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, were canceled after U.S. officials passed on information they deemed credible about security threats from passengers flying from Paris to Los Angeles, U.S. and European officials said Wednesday.

Three of the canceled flights were headed to Los Angeles and three more were returning to Paris.

A spokesman for French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said the decision to cancel the flights came early Wednesday after American authorities notified France that "two or three" suspicious people, possibly Tunisian nationals, were planning to board the flights.

The French Interior ministry said the United States handed French authorities the names of suspicious people who may have intended to board the flights but no people by those names went through airport security checks, and no arrests were made. French television station LCI reported that U.S. authorities believed members of al-Qaida may have been planning to board the planes.

It was unclear who ordered the cancellations. The Interior Ministry said the flights were canceled at the request of the U.S. Embassy in Paris. A spokesman for Raffarin said the United States had threatened to refuse the planes permission to land if they took off. But U.S. officials refused to confirm that they had requested the cancellations.

The U.S. Homeland Security Department had been meeting with French officials in recent days over concerns about a possible terrorist attack.

On Thursday, however, French justice and law enforcement officials said they found little evidence that terrorists were planning to use U.S.-bound aircraft to launch attacks against American targets.

No arrests were made, and French authorities released seven men — one French, one American and several Algerians — after briefly questioning them late Wednesday, said an Interior Ministry spokesman. He said the investigation was all but on hold.

A French judicial official who spoke on condition of anonymity said none of the passengers on the canceled flights, including those who were questioned at the airport, was known to intelligence authorities or had known links with Islamic extremist groups.

The people held for interrogation were chosen because their names appeared on a list provided by American authorities, the ministry spokesman said on condition of anonymity.

U.S. officials were in intense security talks with officials from several other countries too. One industry official, speaking only on condition of anonymity, said a Mexican airline, Aeromexico, was another focus of U.S. security officials' concern.

A Homeland Security official in Washington, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. government has been working with a number of governments overseas to help them improve airport security in the wake of the credible threats against airliners originating overseas and headed to the United States.

The official said American officials had passed on to other governments a "very credible threat" of possible attacks originating overseas.

American officials said the U.S. government was comparing data it had compiled on passengers preparing to board flights entering the United States, as well as data on the flight crews on those flights, with terrorist watch lists it has compiled.

U.S. officials have been working to get foreign airlines to provide American officials with more passenger information on people aboard the flights that originate overseas and travel to the United States, said an official who spoke this week on condition of anonymity. France and Mexico were of particular concern in this regard, the official said.

Three of the canceled flights had been scheduled to depart Wednesday — two from Paris and one from Los Angeles. Air France gave the flight numbers as 68, 69 and 70.

The three other flights were scheduled to leave on Christmas Day — two from Los Angeles and one from Paris. Air France listed those flight numbers as 68, 69 and 71.

Despite the threats, U.S. officials were encouraging all U.S. travelers to keep their scheduled holiday plans, noting the "significantly enhanced security here and overseas" since Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

On Wednesday evening, the Delta Air Lines terminal at New York's La Guardia Airport was temporarily evacuated after a female passenger set off a metal detector and went into the concourse before she could be rescreened, Transportation Safety Administration spokeswoman Amy von Walter said.