Michael
I agree with you, the reporting on this story has been woefully inadequate. I don't know if it's due to the holidays and perhaps a skeleton staff of competent editors or what, but there is just so much information missing that could've easily been discovered had these reporters had any ability.
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.
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(Seth Borenstein and William Douglas contributed to this report.)