The U.S. revokes visas of 17 pilots who fly the Caracas-Miami route for Venezuelan airline
AP ^ | Dec 19, 2003
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1043695/posts
I ALMOST FORGOT ABOUT THIS ONE:
Bolivia holding nine Bangladeshis suspected of plot to attack U.S. target in Argentina
The Associated Press ^ | 12/5/03 11:22 AM | ALVARO ZUAZO
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1034644/posts
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) -- The Bolivian government said Friday it was questioning nine Bangladeshis after French police warned the group may have been planning to hijack an airplane for an attack on an American target in Argentina.
"We cannot confirm them," Interior Minister Alfonso Ferrufino said of the French police warnings.
The Bangladeshi suspects are being held in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz. A second official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said seven other people -- nationalities not provided -- had been questioned and released.
Bolivian police said they received an urgent warning from Mare Bertrand, a police attache at the French Embassy, that said: "French intelligence services have received information that leads us to think that the citizens from Bangladesh may board planes in South America, hijack them and crash them against U.S. targets."
The Santa Cruz daily El Deber reported that the group was planning to fly to Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Dec. 2, but the airline, Aerolineas Argentinas, canceled the flight "at the last minute."
According to Bolivian officials, the Bangladeshis flew from France to Argentina and on to Bolivia.
It wasn't immediately clear when they arrived in Bolivia.
Prosecutor Jaime Soliz said the Bangladeshis will be sent to Argentina.
Police identified the detained suspects as Jahangir Alam, 24; Morad Hossain, 27; Mihir Lal Ray, 30; Mohammed Jalkaria, 26; Anwar Hossain, 24; Ahmed Chowdhury Fares, 25; Mohammed Mahubud Alam, 24; Mohammed Eftaker Hossen, 24, and Sohel Rana, whose age was not known.
Last week, Argentina ordered security to be stepped up near the U.S., Spanish, British and Italian embassies in Buenos Aires after government officials said they received foreign intelligence warnings of possible terrorist threats.
Defense Minister Jose Pampuro said Argentina also had boosted border patrols after receiving warnings from "two international intelligence services" -- whom he did not identify -- that an attack could be imminent.
Argentina was hit by two terrorist attacks during the 1990s, both of them targeting the country's Jewish community, Latin America's largest with an estimated 200,000 people.
A March 1992 bombing destroyed the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 28 people. Two years later, a blast at a Jewish community center killed 85 people in the Argentine capital and wounded more than 200 others.
Selene, your posts about Latin American connections are right on. There is a lot going on down there, and AQ has very active cells. They also have a terrorist sponsor, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who even happens to have the brother of Carlos the Jackal (who is, btw, a convert to Islam) working in his government. To say nothing of Fidel, who is visiting Hugo right now, I believe.
I live in Florida, and the folks at the Miami airport seem to nab suspicious people every day who are trying to infiltrate from LatAm.