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| Media disclosure of the French flights helped the Bad Guys get away. Damn. |
| 2003-12-24 |
| Most of this is a rehash of what we already know, but it does contain some new information. An official at the US Department of Homeland Security said they had detected a "credible threat" from al-Qaeda operatives due to board a flight from Paris to Los Angeles. The BBC’s Matt Frei in Washington said US security sources indicated they had alerted the French authorities after scouring the passenger lists. French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said the request was due to intelligence "gathered in the framework of Franco-American co-operation in the fight against terrorism". His spokesman said there were "two or three" names passed to them, but none of those people went through airport security checks and no arrests were made. US Homeland Security officials are reported to be upset that the flights were cancelled so publicly. Unfortunately now these individuals can still carry out this type of attack Walter Purdy, terrorism expert 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". Terrorism expert Walter Purdy, of the Terrorism Research Center in the US, told BBC News the intelligence could have been better used to arrest the suspects at the airport. He said: "The idea is here we had some credible information about a threat, but unfortunately now these individuals can still carry out this type of attack, though not on Air France or out of Paris." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 I can't believe I called it right at my weblog: I leaned toward Air France, citing cultural factors preventing the use of an american-based airline or Aero Mexico. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2003-12-24 10:02:59 PM |