Posted on 01/08/2004 1:30:58 PM PST by presidio9
FRENCH authorities yesterday confirmed they were searching for an Afghan man who had failed to board one of the Air France flights cancelled amid fears of an imminent terror attack over the Christmas period.
The man, named as Abdou Hai, was on a United States list of suspected terrorists - and a passenger with the same surname was due to fly from Paris to Los Angeles on Air France flight 68 on Christmas Eve.
The news came as the US said it believed terrorists had been planning an attack at Christmas bigger than the atrocities on 11 September, 2001.
Reports appeared in the US yesterday that European authorities were searching for a passenger with al-Qaeda links who had trained in Afghanistan. US forces once detained Mr Hai in Afghanistan, but released him, French judicial officials said yesterday. His whereabouts are now unknown but his surname appeared on the passenger list.
The appearance of the name was one reason why security on transatlantic flights was stepped up over the festive season.
In all, six Air France flights between Paris and Los Angeles were cancelled on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day amid concerns that members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network might try to board planes and use them to target the US. French officials said investigators have not established whether the passenger in question was Mr Hai or someone with the same name. Investigators said the Afghan was not known to French intelligence, although he does appear on a US terrorism watch list.
France’s judiciary has not opened an investigation into his activities, meaning he is not suspected of wrongdoing at this stage.
Dominique Perben, France’s justice minister, said: "We are looking for someone but I can’t say more.
"What’s important when someone doesn’t take a plane is to know why he didn’t take it."
Mr Perben would not say whether the suspect was a French national, had a criminal record or was on a watch list of the DST, the country’s secretive counter-terrorism and counter-intelligence agency.
The US television network ABC reported that the man had a French passport, was believed to have undergone training in Afghanistan and was feared to have a small bomb whose components might get past airport security.
A senior official yesterday said French police had no evidence to support the details of the television report.
The Air France flights were cancelled after US intelligence told their French counterparts that operatives from al-Qaeda, the terrorist group accused of engineering the 11 September attacks on the US, would try to board the planes over Christmas.
Police questioned a half-dozen people with tickets because their names appeared on a list provided by the US authorities. But in all cases, investigators determined that they were not terrorists.
French police officials say errors in spelling and transcribing Arabic names have played a role in cases of mistaken identity.
Even after Christmas, a few people were being singled out nearly every day by US authorities as potentially suspect.
Pierre Debue, the director of the French border police, said in all cases the passengers either shared names with suspects or did not turn up for the flight. Investigators did not turn up any cases of particular concern.
"The people in question were found. The cases were clarified," he said. "We did not find anything serious."
Meanwhile, more details emerged yesterday of the US authorities’ concerns about the possibility of terror threats during the festive period after homeland security officials said the government sent teams of scientists with radiation detection devices to four major cities over the New Year’s holiday to search for dirty bombs.
Although there was no fear of a specific plot to use a "dirty bomb" - radioactive material scattered by conventional explosives - officials said teams were dispatched to monitor radiation levels in Washington, New York, Las Vegas and Los Angeles during and leading up to the New Year celebrations.
Brian Roehrkasse, a homeland security spokesman, said: "It should come as no surprise that the department of homeland security directed that certain security measures be put into place to prevent an act of terrorism.
"These actions were not based on a specific plot by al-Qaeda to use WMD [weapons of mass destruction] but these protective measures were put into place for large holiday celebrations in large cities based on concerns about al-Qaeda’s desire to obtain or develop WMD for potential use."
In raising the alert to "orange", or a high possibility of attack, Tom Ridge, the US homeland security secretary, warned of a high risk of an atrocity that could be bigger than those of 11 September, in which about 3,000 people died in the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
Security was beefed up under the orange alert, particularly in areas hosting large public gatherings.
Unlike very public aviation security efforts, measures to try to prevent a dirty bomb attack were not made known.
The department of energy’s nuclear incident response teams, made up mostly of scientists, put preventive detection capabilities in place. The scientists were deployed to the four cities with sophisticated radiation detection equipment, disguised in everyday items.
The US Coast Guard, whose cutters are often equipped with radiation detection devices, was also ordered to monitor major ports for any sign of radiation.
The news came as British Airways flight BA223 from Heathrow to Washington DC finally took off yesterday after being delayed over terrorism fears for the fifth day.
Talking about the delays last night, Mr Ridge said there had been an indication from US agencies "that has led us to target that flight".
Information had been shared with the British government, he added, saying that "rigorous" inspections meant the flight was now safe.
Meanwhile, Qantas Airways, in Australia, said yesterday that the US authorities were banning passengers from congregating near toilets and other places on board airliners flying to the US.
John Anderson, Australia’s transport minister, said that the ban was "a little bit hard to handle".
| Rank | Location | Receipts | Donors/Avg | Freepers/Avg | Monthlies | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 | Nevada | 280.00 |
4 |
70.00 |
114 |
2.46 |
60.00 |
3 |
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BIG problem. No rules about how to transliterate Arabic, Farsi, and the other worm-like scripts of the East, not to mention the big change in Chinese as rendered into English.
Frogs do it one way, we another.
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