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To: mfccinsd
Well, other articles/sites were saying it was also the same Air France route that was threatened...CDG to LAX...but this article specifically contradicts that...and someone seems to know plenty more than they are leading us to believe b/c a law enforcement person basically says expect delays...at least from my reading of his quote...


New Concern Is Expressed About Flights From Abroad
By ERIC LICHTBLAU

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/31/national/31TERR.html?ex=1076130000&en=176f65a2f2f2ae6b&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

Published: January 31, 2004


ASHINGTON, Jan. 30 — American officials said on Friday that they had received new information in recent days pointing to the possibility of an international hijacking and were considering the grounding of several flights from England and France over the weekend as a result.

Officials said terrorist intelligence that they considered "specific and credible" raised particular concerns about British Airways flights from London to Washington and Air France flights. Officials would not disclose the Air France flights but said they were not on the Paris-to-Los Angeles route on which flights were grounded in December.

"It's very similar to what we saw over the Christmas and New Year's holidays, and a repeat of that situation — with the cancellation of some flights — is a high probability," a law enforcement official said.

There were no cancellations as of Friday night, officials said.

At the end of December, United States officials became so alarmed about the threat of an international hijacking that they raised the nation's threat status to "orange," or high risk. Numerous flights into and out of the United States on British Airways, Air France and Aeromexico were canceled or subjected to extraordinary security measures. One flight from Mexico City to Los Angeles turned around in mid-flight because American officials were not satisfied that passengers and baggage had been properly screened.

The threat level was lowered on Jan. 9 to "yellow."

This week, a "re-scrubbing" of intelligence gleaned from the orange alert, along with new intelligence developed from an informant, again raised the specter of an international aviation attack, the law enforcement official said. The threats, corroborated by other sources, including information on specific flights.

"We remain concerned," said Brian Roehrkasse, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, "about Al Qaeda's desire to target aviation, especially international aviation." But he said there were no plans to elevate the threat status.
2,866 posted on 01/30/2004 9:16:11 PM PST by mfccinsd
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To: mfccinsd
bookmark
2,915 posted on 01/30/2004 11:32:14 PM PST by WestCoastGal ("Hire paranoids, they may have a high false alarm rate, but they discover all the plots" Rumsfeld)
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To: mfccinsd
They still are unsure if they will raise the level which differs from yesterday when they said they would not
3,039 posted on 01/31/2004 6:01:50 AM PST by JustPiper (Register Republican and Write-In Tom Tancredo in March)
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