BBC: US Homeland Security "Upset" Cancelations were made so public..

BBC UK ^

[chito]

BBC reports that US Homeland Security officials are reported to be upset that the flights were cancelled so publicly. An unnamed official told the Associated Press news agency security forces had been "hoping that we would be able to lure some of these people in".

The article almost seems to give the French government credit for taking the initiative for cancelling the Air France flights..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3347313.stm

[Peach]

I hope the French sleep well tonight. Those guys over there don't know how to handle undercover work.

[chito]

thats why i posted, thought the other take on this was interesting..i do alot of business in europe and i get to see things from different views in very short amounts of time..i'm always looking to see how people spin things...

BTW congrats on the baby boy...

[Archangelsk]

Does Tom Ridge have mad cow disease already?

Tom Ridge, political hack extraordinaire, has no business in this position. We need someone equivalent to Jesus Angleton to run the show.

[Archangelsk]

Probably because the equipment broke down.

[spokeshave]

"How the hell can you cancel flights "quietly"? It would show up asap on websites, etc. What the hell is DHS thinking? Does Tom Ridge have mad cow disease already? nwrep;

IMHO the best way to cancel flights with out anyone knowing, would be to have all the airlines quietly send all their money back with no reason.This way no one would be the wiser, and nobody would say anything. They would just not show up at the airport.

So why the heck they didn't let everyone board, take off then laand at some local military airport ...?

[Starboard]

US Homeland Security officials are reported to be upset that the flights were cancelled so publicly. An unnamed official told the Associated Press news agency security forces had been "hoping that we would be able to lure some of these people in".

Yeah, I can't buy into this part of BBC's story. They rely too much on vague attributions. BBC has an anti-Bush agenda and is axious to make the Administration look bad.

[rabidralph]

How the hell can you cancel flights "quietly"?

By not listing the true reason they're being canceled. The French could have cited mechanical problems with the plane after all the terrorists had boarded and then canceled the flight and arrested whomever, leaving the plane. But French officials decided to go the "shout-it-from-the-rooftop" mode and tell everybody why they were canceling. "shhh, we're hunting tewowists."

[Ann Archy]

Congrats!!!

[OneTimeLurker]

The NW flight was not a bunch of flights from Paris to LA. Sounds like these may have been all the AF flight between the cities those 2 days. People would notice. Things don't break down a couple days before a flight!

[rabidralph]

Anything but "Hey! We might have terrorists booked on this flight, so we're canceling it!" Stupid French.

[Gritty]

They canceled the flights? That's the craziest thing I ever heard. This was a golden opportunity!

What they should have done is board and load each of the airplanes (include a squad of Delta operators on each aircraft), taxi from the gate, and proceed to a secure area on the airfield, out of sight of the terminal.

From there, use the excuse of an "engine fire" or some such thing, shut down and make everybody use the escape slides. Then, the waiting authorities would pick everybody up at the bottom, put them in custody and start the interrogations. Meanwhile, initiate the usual flight following on the bogus aircraft that "took off", but didn't.

This way, no terrorist cells are tipped off, including ones at different and later take-off locations who would surely get word if there was a cancellation on an earlier flight.

Then, take all the passengers from the later suspected flights and instead of marching them down the ramp into the aircraft, march them off into incarceration, followed by the usual vetting and interrogation.

Sure, a thousand innocent people would be inconvenienced, but they wouldn't be dead. Then, you would have all the players in your hands. Now the bad guys are gone to ground - until the next time.

[livius]

I think this is just a disclaimer.

We certainly don't want AQ to think that this is all we know, or that we're now going to sit down and go to sleep. If AQ thought that, they'd be seriously wrong.

[BigDoom]

22:43 U.S. official: American government had information that Al-Qaida operative `infiltrated` an Air France flight
21:15 Six Air France flights to Los Angeles canceled for security concerns

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/ShTickers.html

[GovernmentShrinker]

They could have waited until the last minute to cancel them, when the terrorists were already at the gate. Some of these flights weren't even scheduled 'til tomorrow.

[Indie]

A gentleman showed up on the watch list at the NAS AA ATO this morning trying to go to MIA and the agent called and indicated properly such was the case. Eventually the person flew after more info was gathered.. Scary.
NAS is an easy destination for bad guys and therefore an easy entry point. Heck you can go to Cuba from there.
These watched folks trigger alerts every day.

[Yaelle]

My question is: If you are an Al Quaeda guy and your big day has come but they found you out and canceled your flight, do you just go home or head to the mosque and call it a day? Or do you immediately choose Plan B? And what would Plan B be?

How worried should we be?

[papertyger]

But I wonder if we notified the French that terrorists might be on those flights, and they just cancelled them without attempting to find and arrest the terrrorists.

That sounds french, alright.

[1066AD]

How the hell can you cancel flights "quietly"?
Do what Aeroflot used to do.. just keep postponing them. In their case it was to avoid giving refunds !