Whereabouts Unknown: Terror Suspect Failed to Show for Christmas Eve Flight

abc ^ | 1/6/04

[knak]

Jan. 6— Authorities across Europe are searching for a passenger suspected of having links to al Qaeda who failed to show up for an Air France flight on Christmas Eve, ABCNEWS has learned.

U.S. law enforcement officials believe the male passenger underwent terrorist training in Afghanistan. The ongoing search for the man — who was traveling with a French passport — is one of the factors contributing to the continuing security jitters about trans-Atlantic flights, officials said.

French officials told ABCNEWS the man is feared to have a small bomb whose components might get past airport security.

The man had a ticket for Air France's Flight 68 from Paris to Los Angeles on Dec. 24, but the flight was canceled and the passenger never showed up at the airport, U.S. and French officials told ABCNEWS.

The man is being sought across Europe. Former French defense official Alexis Debat says the French fear they canceled the flight too soon, tipping him off.

"Nobody knows where he is and that is a big concern throughout Europe," said Debat, an ABCNEWS consultant. "The French are concerned that they may have dropped the ball."

The man's identity and description have been passed on to security officials in London, adding to other potential threats being dealt with there.

"This person will also have several other pieces or documents, aliases, several passports," Debat said.

As part of the search for the one suspect, French officials today carried out two raids today near the city of Lyon and in a small town north of Paris, based in part on U.S. intelligence information.

"You have to hit at the head, which is the logistical network that enables the person to travel back and forth," said Debat.

As well as the Air France flights, several other U.S.-bound flights were canceled or delayed over the holidays, including British Airways flights from London to Washington.

[Bush is too liberal]

He probably joined other terrorists in an unopposed effort crossing our too-open borders. All because Bush wants the Mexican vote.

[Tunehead54]

"This person will also have several other pieces or documents, aliases, several passports," ...

---

I recall reading how the french embassy heroically stayed open even overtime during the war issuing french passports to Iraqis ... :-(

[Admin Moderator]

Stop spamming the threads.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Yousef had people who took down a plane in the 90's doing this.

Which plane was it?

[Americanchild]

Plastic explosives are easy to get through security.
( I say this from experience working in security, not because I've tried it!)

[Jim Robinson]

LOL. Ok, here it is for all to see:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1052247/posts

Now the entire world will beat a path for your door.

[Peach]

The book has been returned to the library; it was not a US plane and I'm afraid I don't remember which plane it was - only remember it was the 90's and brought down using the items I mentioned.

The books is an excellent read and you will find the specific information contained in it.

[Alamo-Girl]

Indeed. Thanks for the ping!

[tgslTakoma]

Maybe he hopped a flight in Egypt on Flash Airlines last Saturday??

[tgslTakoma]

Oops! I guess I should have read further, before I posted my comment with similar idea.

[M. Peach]

I don't know why they just didn't keep their mouths shut and wait to bust the guy while he as going through the checkpoints.

[Freedom of Speech Wins]

French intentionally screwed it up. Then tried to embarass Bush making it seem there was just a kid with the same name as the terrorists.

Then the French newspapers railed that it was a US conspiracy versus France.

[CaptIsaacDavis]

Let me guess, and France is on the list of countries we won't fingerprint people from...

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

People are assuming that this happened by accident. I'm betting that it's a French accident-on-purpose. I bet the Frenchies are real sorry that their boy didn't get through.

Are my views outrageous? Seeing how they were supporting Saddam and his WMD programs, I wouldn't put anything past those French skunks.

[kcvl]

I wonder why they are all in France? /sarcasm



Father of Guantanamo Bay Suspect Detained
Tue Jan 6, 3:18 PM ET

By JEAN-BAPTISTE LABEUR, Associated Press Writer

LYON, France - An Islamic cleric whose son is being held at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba was among seven people detained by French security agents Tuesday as part of an investigation into suspected terror networks.



The imam, Chellali Benchellali, was arrested at his home in the tough Minguettes high-rise neighborhood of Venissieux, a suburb of the southeastern city of Lyon, said a lawyer for the family.


Attorney Jacques Debray said the imam's wife and one of his sons, Hafid, also were detained in the sweep by the DST, France's secretive counterterrorism and counterintelligence agency.


Another of his sons, Mourad Benchellali, is among six French detainees suspected of ties to the al-Qaida terrorist network who are being held at the U.S. Navy (news - web sites) base at Guantanamo Bay.


French agents also arrested a pharmacist from Minguettes who works at a Lyon mosque and another man from the neighborhood, according to an association that supports prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.


Police confirmed that five people were detained in Venissieux and said another two were arrested elsewhere in the Lyon region. There were no immediate details about the last two.


Some of those detained are believed to have provided logistical support, possibly including false papers, to suspected terrorists, police said, without providing further details.


The arrests were ordered by anti-terror magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere, who has been using his sweeping powers of detention and investigation to probe suspected links between Islamic militants in France and rebels in Russia's breakaway, largely Muslim republic of Chechnya (news - web sites).


Bruguiere has previously said that the volatile Caucasus region, including Chechnya and Georgia, has become a training ground for Islamic militants who return to Europe to conduct attacks after being taught how to use chemical weapons and other arms.


A third son of the imam, Menad Benchellali, was picked up in the Paris region during a sweep a year ago that authorities said thwarted planned bomb or toxic gas attacks in France and Russia by a terror cell with ties to Chechen rebels and al-Qaida.


The December 2002 raids in the Paris suburbs of Romainville and La Courneuve turned up diagrams of chemical formulas for explosives and a substance that could make toxic gas, judicial officials said at the time.


Counterterrorism agents also found electronic components, a suit against chemical and biological attacks and radiation, two empty gas canisters and false identity papers.


French authorities have said that Menad Benchellali trained with Chechen rebels and met high-level al-Qaida operatives in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, which borders Chechnya.

[kcvl]

France: Government, Muslim Leaders Agree To Form Council To Combat Misunderstand

mail icon Email this article to a friend france government, Muslim LeadersAgree To Form Council To Combat Misunderstandings. By Sarah Martin.

http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2003/02/04022003173640.asp

Extractions: Email this article to a friend By Sarah Martin France is home to Western Europe's largest Muslim population. And with a recent spate of arrests, the country is being portrayed as one of Europe's new hotbeds for Islamic terrorism. Negative media coverage has sparked angry sentiment toward the country's Muslim population. In an effort to correct misunderstandings, the French government and Muslim leaders have agreed to create the first nationally elected council to represent the country's 5 million Muslims. Paris, 4 February 2003 (RFE/RL) More than 25 suspected terrorists have been arrested in France since last spring. The county's new center-right government says it believes the threat from radical Islamic groups is much more deeply rooted than it had first imagined. Such news has left many in France's Muslim community particularly concerned, worried that their faith will be questioned and that they will be looked at with greater suspicion. Nine suspected Islamic militants were arrested recently in a raid in a northern Paris suburb. One of the men, Menad Benchellali, is the son of Chellali Benchellali, an Algerian-born imam, or prayer leader, who runs the Abu Bakr mosque in suburban Lyon. Last year, another of Benchellali's sons, Mourad, was arrested by U.S. forces in Afghanistan and imprisoned at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2003/02/04022003173640.asp

[kcvl]

http://www.straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/world/story/0,4386,167048,00.html?

JAN 19, 2003

France may fund mosques to thwart militants

The threat of Islamic terrorism is forcing it to rethink the principle of separation of church and state

PARIS - France has decided to reconsider one of its most fundamental principles on the separation of the church and state, forced by the threat of Islamic terrorism, the government has said.

The Telegraph of London reported yesterday that it was considering a proposal to allow the state to build mosques, as part of a bold scheme to create a French version of Islam.

The guiding principle is to prevent France's second-biggest religion from falling further under the sway of foreign powers - notably Saudi Arabia.

Under current laws that date back to 1905, the state is prohibited from building places of worship. But since Sept 11, the government has been searching for ways to communicate with, and control, France's five million Muslims.

The paper quoted the minister responsible for property and building law Pierre Bedier as saying: 'In 1905, the government thought that Catholics were anti-republi- can and constituted a menace.

'Today it is Islam which poses this question. It would be unrealistic not to respond to this concern.'

There are 1,600 mosques in France - most are little more than a small room - but money from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states has been cascading into France for the funding of Islamic cultural centres and new mosques.

The Grand Mosque in Lyons, for example, cost £3 million (S$8.4 million) and was 90 per cent funded from Saudi Arabia.

Given the growing concern over the inflow of foreign teachers, the new Interior Minister, Mr Nicolas Sarkozy, said he would do all he could to prevent foreign Muslim clerics from settling down in France and preaching militant Islam.

The local authorities have tried to find a way out of the old law by giving Muslims low rents and land.

As part of such efforts, the leaders of a new nationally elected Muslim council were welcomed by President Jacques Chirac to the Elysee Pa- lace.

The council is similar to those that exist for Catholics, Jews and Protestants.

It gives Muslims a single body which the government can talk to on issues from education and work to mosque- building and the harbouring of Islamic terrorists.

At the meeting, Mr Chirac told the council that in the past, he regretted that 'there was no organised dialogue between Muslim representatives and the French authorities'.

Police already keep a close eye on mosques which might provide cover for terrorists, such as the Abu Bakr mosque in Lyons. Its imam, Chellali Benchellali, an Algerian-born cleric, is the father of two men being held in connection with terrorist investigations.

One was arrested last month in Paris; the other was taken by the Americans from Afghanistan to their Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.