Posted on 12/26/2003 9:47:35 AM PST by TexKat
WASHINGTON - U.S. investigators are searching for a small number of people who failed to show up at the Paris airport to board flights to Los Angeles that fell under close scrutiny in a possible terrorist plot, a U.S. official said Friday.
One of those people was receiving pilot training, but was not yet certified, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Investigators remain interested in talking with those people to ease concerns some passengers aboard those flights might have intended to use them to launch terror attacks against the United States, the official said.
Discussions between U.S. and French officials led to the cancellation of six Air France flights between Paris and Los Angeles on Wednesday and Thursday. U.S. officials also were talking to officials in other countries.
After the Air France cancellations, French investigators questioned seven men pointed out by U.S. intelligence but found no evidence they planned to use a Los Angeles-bound jet to launch terror attacks against the United States, French authorities said.
Meanwhile, U.S. counterterrorism officials were turning to possible threats next week that might target large, public gatherings, such as New Year's Eve celebrations. One U.S. official said there was no specific information such an attack was likely, but said such gatherings would obviously be an attractive target for terrorists hoping to inflict large-scale casualties.
Already, Homeland Security officials have enhanced their ability to monitor the air for biological warfare agents in 30 cities, one of several ways the government is preparing for possible terrorist strikes during a high, Code Orange alert.
The alert also has activated special disaster response teams, while federal officials have been conferring with foreign governments to prevent terrorists from boarding international flights bound for the United States.
"People have their antennas up," said Brian Roehrkasse, a spokesman for the Homeland Security Department.
President Bush kept abreast of terrorism threats from the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland as he celebrated Christmas Day with his family.
The department previously modified air pollution monitoring equipment in the 30 cities to pick up any harmful biological agents and provide test results in 12 to 24 hours.
After the national threat alert was raised to orange on Sunday, officials took several dozen additional monitors and installed them in the same cities. The locations were not identified for security reasons.
The emergency response units that have been activated are divided up by areas of expertise.
Separate teams would:
_Provide expert advice and support to the on-scene commander if there was a threat or an incident involving weapons of mass destruction.
_Respond to any release of radiation with advice and air monitoring equipment.
_Provide medical personnel to assist state and local medical authorities.
___
On the Net:
Homeland Security Department: http://www.dhs.gov
One of those people was receiving pilot training, but was not yet certified,
Could this guy be perhaps of Arab descent....??
Perhaps some of these links can help you.
U.S., fearing terror attack, seeks global cooperation
Terror intelligence leads France to cancel six international flights
By Jonathan S. Landay
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Air France on Wednesday canceled six flights between Paris and Los Angeles at the request of the French government acting on U.S. intelligence reports that al-Qaida might be planning to hijack aircraft for a Sept. 11-style suicide attack.
Three of the flights - two bound from Paris to Los Angeles and one in the opposite direction - were scheduled for Wednesday. Two more Los Angeles-bound flights and one to Paris were to have flown on Christmas Day.
The cancellations followed U.S. intelligence reports that followers of Osama bin Laden have been looking to circumvent security measures at foreign and U.S. airports and hijack airliners for suicide attacks on the United States during the Christmas holidays, according to U.S. officials. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of their information.
The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday restricted planes from flying over downtown Chicago because of Mayor Richard M. Daley's fear that terrorists might hit the massive Sears Tower, FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said. The mayor's request, made Monday because of the government's heightened terror alert, was granted after consulting with the Department of Homeland Security, Brown said.
The FAA's notice to the aviation community called the Chicago restrictions "special security instructions" and banned all but emergency law enforcement, fire fighting and rescue flights from a patch of downtown stretching from the Lake Michigan shoreline to the Dan Ryan and Eisenhower expressways.
One senior U.S. official with knowledge of the administration's deliberations over air space safety said the White House considered closing all U.S. air space if the French government did not cancel the Air France flights. On Wednesday, FAA spokeswoman Brown said there was no plan to close U.S. air space.
The senior U.S. official, who requested anonymity, said that U.S. and French officials began talking about the flights shortly after the United States raised its terrorism alert level on Sunday. Of particular concern, said U.S. officials, have been airports in France and Mexico.
An official at the Department of Homeland Security, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that U.S. intelligence officials had hoped to keep the reasons for the cancellations quiet so that al-Qaida operatives planning hijackings might be lured into the open and arrested.
"The bottom line is that we had some operational issues that we were trying to carry out and were hopeful that this (capture of al-Qaida extremists) would take place instead of what has happened in the media," said the official.
The official said the United States had been discussing with other countries besides France the need to step up security in light of the al-Qaida hijacking threat.
"We are working with all of our international partners to make sure they are meeting the increased security measures," said the official. "We know that al-Qaida is still interested in using aircraft" for suicide attacks.
The Air France cancellations came on the fourth day of a high-level "Code Orange" alert for possible terrorist attacks issued by the Department of Homeland Security.
U.S. officials said intelligence developed by the CIA on an al-Qaida threat to Air France aircraft was passed to the French government by the U.S. Embassy in Paris.
A second senior U.S. official declined to give further details, except to say that the intelligence did not concern inadequate security at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.
"It's not the airport," he said.
On Dec. 22, 2001, Richard Reid, a British convert to Islam, evaded security measures at Charles de Gaulle, boarded an American Airlines flight for Miami and tried to ignite explosives hidden in his shoes.
He was overpowered by other passengers, arrested after the flight was diverted to Boston and later convicted in the abortive attack.
A statement issued Wednesday by the office of French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said the decision to ask Air France to cancel the flights was taken after consultations with the United States.
"This measure was taken at the request of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin on the basis of information, currently being checked, which was gathered in the framework of Franco-American cooperation in the fight against terrorism and which was of a nature to threaten the safety of these flights," the statement said.
Natelie Loisseau, a spokeswoman for the French Embassy in Washington, said that there had been several days of consultations between U.S. and French law enforcement officials in Paris and Washington "at the operational level."
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin telephoned U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday to inform him of the cancellations, she said. The intense consultations illustrated how closely U.S. and French officials continue to work on counterterrorism operations despite serious political differences over the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Security at public places and critical facilities remained tight Wednesday across the nation, including at Los Angeles International Airport. Some 2.6 million travelers are expected to use the airport between Dec. 19 and Jan. 4.
Nineteen al-Qaida operatives hijacked four U.S. commercial airliners on Sept. 11, 2001, and flew two into the World Trade Center in New York and one into the Pentagon. The fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.
The bloodiest terrorist attack in U.S. history killed more than 3,000 people and prompted the Bush administration to open a global campaign against al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.
The latest high-level terrorism alert, however, illustrated the persisting potency of al-Qaida despite significant successes achieved by the U.S.-led campaign to crush the Islamic extremist group.
---
(Seth Borenstein and William Douglas contributed to this report.)
Speaking of French reporters, I ran across this a few minutes ago.
2 French Journalists Arrested in Pakistan
Michael Kitchen
Islamabad
24 Dec 2003, 12:38 UTC
Marc Epstein, left, Jean-Paul Guilloteau Pakistan has arrested two French journalists for allegedly violating their visa restrictions. A Pakistani journalist assisting them is also in custody on unspecified charges. Authorities arrested Marc Epstein and Jean-Paul Guilloteau, reporters for the French magazine L'Express, for visiting the southern province of Balochistan earlier this month without permission.
The two men have been granted bail pending trial. Khawar Mehdi, a Pakistani journalist working with them, is still in custody but has yet to be formally charged.
Mr. Epstein and Mr. Guilloteau admit to being in Balochistan while working on a report about an alleged Taleban training camp in Pakistan.
The Taleban, former rulers of neighboring Afghanistan, are waging an insurgency against the current Afghan government.
Afghan officials say Taleban militants have set up bases on the Pakistani side of the border.
Vincent Brossel, head of Asia-Pacific affairs for the press advocacy group Reporters Without Borders, says the subject of the report may be the real reason the journalists were arrested.
"The Pakistani authorities are using the argument of the visa and authorization to arrest these people, because they don't want to see foreign journalists working with real investigative strategies in this part of the world," he said.
The case is complicated by reports suggesting the French reporters were victims of an elaborate hoax.
Pakistani state television has shown video footage said to have been found with the journalists when they were arrested.
The video shows what is said to be a Taleban training camp, including scenes of militants loading rifles and practicing martial arts.
But two men who appear on the video now say they are Pakistanis and were paid by Mr. Mehdi to pose as Afghan fighters.
Sayedullah Noor is one of the men on the tape. He spoke to Pakistani television reporters. Mr. Noor says he received 10,000 Pakistani rupees to pretend to be a Taleban guerrilla.
A mosque official from the northern city of Rawalpindi says Mr. Mehdi paid him to play the role of Taleban commander Mullah Malang.
Pakistan news reports say evidence suggesting the video was a fake prompted police to arrest Mr. Mehdi.
Pakistani reporter Fahimullah Yusufzai says he is not surprised by the allegations, adding that such hoaxes are common.
"This has happened in the past, it is happening right now," he said. "Foreign journalists, especially television, they desperately need some footage, they can't get it, so they fall prey."
He says that recently there were reports a Japanese television crew was sold a bogus video purportedly showing members from the al-Qaida terror network in Pakistan.
Mr. Brossel with Reporters Without Borders rejects the possibility of trickery. He says Mr. Epstein is an award-winning reporter who could not have been fooled.
"How [would] a journalist like Marc Epstein, who went to Pakistan dozens of times, not recognize that they are fake or true Taleban?" he asked.
But Mr. Yusufzai, who has spent decades covering Pakistan for both domestic and international news media, says he doubts the real Taleban would allow foreign journalists into their camps.
"Impossible," he said. "It can't really happen with foreign journalists. The Taleban have not reached a stage where they control a wide area, and where they can feel safe, and where they can take Western journalists."
He says unscrupulous Pakistani and Afghan con-men know they can make money from foreign journalists willing to pay to see Taleban and al-Qaida militants.
"People with covered faces, people shooting in the air," he explained. "Al-Qaida is a salable commodity, and people will believe everything about al-Qaida."
While Mr. Brossel admits such fraud does exist, he says he has received testimony vouching for Mr. Mehdi from former clients.
"I have letters from the leading newspapers in France and in Europe saying that they have been working with Khawar Mehdi and they know he is a professional journalist," said Mr. Brossel. But several Pakistani journalists working near the Afghan border say that because Mr. Mehdi does not speak Pashto, the language of the vast majority of Taleban members, he would be unlikely to gain access to Taleban camps.
Mr. Brossel, whose organization is campaigning for the release of all three men, says, however, that even if the allegations are true, it would not justify holding Mr. Mehdi without charges.
He says Mr. Mehdi should be allowed to defend his reputation in public
Same article posted as FR thread on 12/24/03 also. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1046262/posts
Air France Flights to LA Resume After Terror Scare
A second Air France flight to Papeete in Tahiti with a stopover in Los Angeles was due to leave Paris at 1:00 p.m. EST, and two return Air France flights from Los Angeles to Paris were also due to run as scheduled.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.