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"Earl Evleth" a écrit dans le message de news:
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Saudi brothers on KLM jet took flight classes with 9/11 hijacker


WASHINGTON (AFP) - Two Saudi passengers on a Mexico-bound Dutch plane,
forced last week to return to the Netherlands over security concerns, were
brothers who attended the same U.S.-based flight school as a hijacker
involved in the September 11 terror attacks.

The report was in Newsweek magazine on Sunday.

The April 8 KLM flight was forced to return to the Netherlands after U.S.
anti-terror authorities refused to allow the plane entry to U.S. airspace
and Canadian officials declined to allow the plane to land on its
territory.

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, at least one of two
Saudis on the flight had previously been deported from the United States,
and the names of both brothers appear on a so-called "no-fly" list
compiled
by the Homeland Security department.

U.S. officials said both men had undergone pilot training with September
11
hijacker Hani Hanjour, according to a separate report Sunday in Time
magazine, which wrote that the KLM flight carrying 287 passengers was
diverted to London, where the men were questioned by Dutch authorities and
later released because they were not on any Dutch watch list.

U.S. counterterrorism officials say intelligence indicates Al-Qaeda may be
planning to use foreign-based airliners to launch an attack against the
U.S.
homeland and fear that Mexico with its porous border may become a staging
ground for that assault.

But Newsweek magazine reported that the brothers told authorities they
were
visiting their ill father, a retired Saudi diplomat who is living in
Mexico.
U.S. authorities told the magazine that the brothers' story appeared to be
holding up.

"I just don't think this was a plot along the lines of 9/11," an official
told Newsweek.

Meanwhile, Time reported that the U.S. no-fly list has grown from 19,000
names to 31,000, and that the U.S. Transportation Security Administration
(TSA) is seeking to expand the use of the no-fly list in the wake of the
KLM
incident.

The TSA is proposing that all foreign airlines -- even those not flying to
a
US destination -- check their manifests against the list if they are
flying
over US airspace, according to the magazine, but some airlines reportedly
have strong objections, fearing the policy could dent the heavy summer
travel season.