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.

[kcvl]

MODNOTE: The prisoners in Guantanamo served their God and Country, as best they could, but the U.S. says the whole world must serve its "God and Country," only.

Is it any wonder Americans are considered very ugly, and even evil around the world? The U.S. is indeed acting like an "evil empire," and empire-building is what the Bush Dynasty is all about.

The Bush Dynasty supported Adolph Hitler during WWII, and Nazi refugees subsequently worked with George Bush Sr. and other U.S. government agents, to build the CIA into the White imperialist organization it is, today. The Bush Dynasty is doing, today, what it eventually accused Germany and Japan of attempting, to accomplish during WWII,i.e., to rule the world.

All these racist antics remind of all those racist James Bond books and movies where the English are always saving the world from being dominated by other than the United Kingdom and United States. It is any surprise that the
U.S. and U.K. are working hand-in-hand, to conquer and rule the world,
today?

It is so plain to see except, to those whose "God and Country" is the devil himself.

paz-amor, ruben


***


Guantanamo Captives' Families Wait

Fri Sep 13, 9:43 AM ET

By PAISLEY DODDS, Associated Press Writer

For relatives of the 598 detainees at this remote outpost life goes on —
without their men, and without any idea how long their husbands and sons
will be imprisoned.


Rasul Kudayev's fiancee in Russia married someone else. Mamdouh Habib's wife
and four children fend for themselves in Australia. Mourad Benchellali's
father in France wonders if he will see — or hear from — his son again.

"The detainees' families are going on with their lives during the day, but
at night they're dreaming of their sons," said Najeeb al-Nauimi, a lawyer
and former Qatari justice minister who argues the detainees should be
returned to their home countries.

The detainees come from 43 nations and are suspected of links to the
al-Qaida terror network and Afghanistan ( news - web sites)'s fallen Taliban
regime. The first of the men were flown to this desolate U.S. military base
in Cuba in January.

After eight months, they have not been charged or allowed to see lawyers.

The detainees can communicate with relatives only through mail delivered by
the U.S. Postal Service or the International Committee of the Red Cross,
which is the only independent group allowed to see the suspects.

Chellali Benchellali, reached by telephone at his home in Venissieux,
France, said he and his wife have stopped getting cards from their son
Mourad, one of at least six French prisoners at Guantanamo.

Mourad told his parents last year he was leaving to "learn about religion"
in Arab countries. Then they received a postcard saying he was at
Guantanamo.

"His morale was low, he said in the postcard," Benchellali said. Since then,
"it's been silence."

Uncertainty is taking its toll on both the families and detainees. Four
detainees tried to kill themselves in July and August, said Army Lt. Col.
Joe Hoey.

The families were not notified of the attempts: "That is not within our
radar scope," Capt. Al Shimkus, a surgeon at the base, said Thursday.

He said 57 detainees suffer from psychological disorders, including
post-traumatic stress disorder, including 30 that are on medication to fight
depression and anxiety.

Al-Nauimi, speaking by telephone from Australia, said he has copies of 80
postcards the men wrote to their families.

"Some of the detainees have told their families they won't be writing
anymore and will see them in heaven," said al-Nauimi. "One man told his
family that guards had told him he would be buried in Guantanamo."

The family of Rasul Kudayev has moved on in his absence. His mother, Fatimat
Tikayev, has taken a new job as a nurse. She said her son's fiancee married
another man.

Tikayev, who lives in the southern Russia city of Khasanya, said her son
went to Kyrgyzstan to become a wrestler in 1999. She was reached by
telephone from Moscow, along with her son's friend, Zeytun Sultanov, who
said Kudayev went to the former Soviet republic to escape the draft.

"Rasul didn't want to serve even in the Russian army because he didn't
accept violence or military uniforms," his mother said.

Sultanov said his friend "always wanted to study abroad" and that "America
was his highest dream."

While some families hold out hope for America's judicial system, others have
taken their cases to other courts.

The lawyer for a British Taliban suspect urged a panel of British judges
Tuesday in London to order his country's government to intervene.

Attorney Nicholas Blake said Britain was obligated by its commitment to
human rights to urge the United States to either release Ferroz Abbasi, 22,
or charge him and give him access to a lawyer.

"Guantanamo is a sort of legal black hole," Judge Robert Carnwath said after
Blake described detainees' lack of access to the courts.

In Australia, meanwhile, Maha Habib is watching her children grow up without
their father, Mamdouh Habib, 47, who was captured by U.S. forces in Pakistan
in October on suspicion of links to al-Qaida. His wife denies the
allegation.

A postcard sent to the couple's eldest son, Ahmed, listed Habib's detainee
designation as JJJFFA. With an 80-cent stamp, it was mailed to Australia by
U.S. officials in Washington.

The only other contact Maha Habib has had with her husband — an Australian
who also holds Egyptian citizenship — was a letter sent via the Red Cross in
April.

Habib has told Australian media that her husband's imprisonment is "taking
its toll" on the couple's four children. Ahmed recently completed his final
exams, but her youngest son cries constantly.

Short letters from several Kuwaiti detainees made available to The
Associated Press express a strong belief in their innocence and a hope of
freedom.

"Be delighted because God's relief is imminent," reads a June 19 letter
25-year-old Fawzi al-Oda sent to his family.

Fawzi's father, Khaled, said he has received five letters since his son's
detention in Guantanamo. "He always says that he is fine and asks us to pray for him. He is also confident of his innocence, and so are we."






http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:E_PENC1uIw0J:groups.yahoo.com/group/Colorings/message/349%3Fsource%3D1+Chellali+Benchellali&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

...considering a proposal to allow the state to build mosques, as part of a bold scheme...

Bold scheme my Aunt Fanny!! This is yet another gutless policy to appease enemies. What really pisses me off is that this lifts Islamo-fascist morale and gives them all the motivation in the world to continue their scumrat ways. They're currently toppling several European countries. Heck, they don't need Saddam to be developing nuclear weapons. Soon, the Islamo-fascists will be in direct possession of France's nuclear arsenal. If that happens, GW Bush will have to exercise nuclear options.

The French will never get it.

[ModelBreaker]

Why not go public with the description?

Two reasons come to mind:

1. They don't have a good description.

2. Or, more likely, this 'French dropped the ball stuff' is disinformation. They know where he is an are following him to the folks upstairs. They don't want the folks upstairs spooked.

[My Dog Likes Me]

No, we screwed up. Classified information like the identity of a bomber should be "NO FORN" so it can't be shared with foreign intell. The CIA should've just waited at the airport in Paris and taken him down.

[Djarum]

He could take down an airplane using chemicals in a contact lens case and a wristwatch.

I thought that was MacGyver?

[Robert_Paulson2]

I agree with you partly.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but I wonder if the French ever had any "balls" to drop, to begin with...

having said that, my suspicions are WE KNOW that FRANCE is literally at war via proxy, with the USA... and specops or cia may have waxed this guy's skiis, prior to his trip in the plane. He may turn up without both legs, in a dumpster somewhere.

THE FRENCH

---

A rather prominent Green Party E.M. is announcing quite publicly that some very specific European countries (namely France and Germany), have been backing terrorists in the middle east in an attempt to offset the "american hegemony" of power.

and the minister has been very matter of fact about it.
In other words, We are AT WAR with France (more correctly THEY are at WAR with US), informally via their proxy "mercenaries," hamas, hezbollah, the al quaeda and other worldwide islamikazi paramilitary organizations. France is not shy in their disdain and bitterness towards their betters (USA and Britain)in culture, science, polity, liberte and virtually every measure of a nation's value.

How do I put this?
Damn them... is the best I can do.

[Robert_Paulson2]

What makes you think we didn't?
No one trusts the French.
Least of all this president or his administration.

FRANCE is due for a trip to the woodshed with Uncle Sam, BIG TIME.

[My Dog Likes Me]

ha. I hope you're right.

Maybe we got him in the parking garage...

[Coop]

Makes you wonder if the French really cancelled the flight in error. They are our enemies in the terror war.

It's really not even debatable.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

The French will spread out their hands, shrug their shoulders and say, "We were only following proceedure." They knew this would tip off the terrorist. And they view that as America's problem, not theirs. They truly believe that in pacifying the terrorists, they are protecting their hides.

It is terrible to wish ill on anyone, but I sometimes wonder how the French would react, if a large terrorist strike happened on their soil? My bet is that they would blame America, for not fighting terrorism enough... and, at the same time for having the courage to fight the terrorists to begin with.

Chirac's main goal in life is to be the principle power behind the EU... he wants the EU to be equal to America. He should be viewed as our enemy, never our ally. He has already shown us his true character.

[sarasota]

I doubt that those words are from the French. More likely from the abc reporter.

[sarasota]

Hopefully you can see that this is very good news. We're on it...but the French, well, maybe not. At any rate, we're breathing down the necks of these terrorists.

[sarasota]

They let these clowns go into the bathroom together?!

[b4its2late]

The intel was excellent.....we had him...but the French screwed it up.

Now there's a shocking statement..... /sarcasm.

[Flint]

Makes you wonder if some of our Sneaky Petes got to him before he got to the airport. Just did a vanishing act on him and he won't come walking out from behind the curtains again.

[Becki]

No, we screwed up. Classified information like the identity of a bomber should be "NO FORN" so it can't be shared with foreign intell. The CIA should've just waited at the airport in Paris and taken him down.

But, France is our ally!! We can share intel with them and they will help us.

< /sarcasm>

Becki

[sully777]

"'French are concerned that they may have dropped the ball.'

gee, ya' think?'"

Dropped the ball or leaked info to terrorists???

[CyberAnt]

Oh yes .. I do see this as a very good thing. My concern is that other countries, like France, are not taking this seriously. But .. I'm thinking France may have have suddenly realized their standing in the world would be jeopardized if they allowed this guy to get on their plane. Although they're late to the party .. I'm hoping this has brought them back to reality .. at least in the intelligence community.

I'm just not comforted that the guy is on the loose.

[sarasota]

He can run but he can't hide.