France finds no terror links on flights

Maybe terrorists are like WMDs, they
disappear when you start looking for them.

Earl

****


France finds no terror links on flights
Thu 25 December, 2003 16:04



RELATED ARTICLES

Britain says air travel OK

By Catherine Bremer

PARIS (Reuters) - Fears of a Christmas Day September 11-style attack have
eased after checks by French intelligence on passenger lists turned up no
terror links on any of six cancelled Air France flights.

A spokeswoman at the French prime minister's office said on Thursday no
formal inquiry was under way and no arrests had been made in connection with
Wednesday's cancellation of six flights between Paris and Los Angeles.

"We have not detected passengers with the profile of people belonging to a
radical Islamic group," a source close to French investigating judges that
deal with terrorism told Reuters.

"All the checks so far have come to nothing," he said.

An Air France spokeswoman said flights to Los Angeles would resume on Friday
as normal. Two flights were due to leave Paris on Friday -- one at midday,
the second an evening flight to Tahiti with a stopover in Los Angeles.

Two return flights from Los Angeles to Paris were also to depart as normal,
she said.

The source said France's DST counter-intelligence service checked passenger
lists of U.S.-bound Christmas flights after a tip from U.S. intelligence.

A U.S. official said "credible, reliable" intelligence reports had been
relayed to France saying extremist groups were planning "near-term
simultaneous attacks" that could be on a scale of the September 11 attacks,
which Washington blames on al Qaeda.

The DST questioned a number of people, but found no evidence of members of
radical Islamist groups among them.

The only person named by U.S. Intelligence as a suspect, a Tunisian man with
a pilot's licence, was still in Tunisia and had no apparent plans to leave
the country, the source said.

French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin decided to cancel the flights in
question, even though the DST's checks were negative, in order to eliminate
any trace of risk, he added.

The head of the International Terrorism Observatory in Paris, Roland
Jacquard, also said the flights had been cancelled as a precaution.

"There were people who were felt to pose a risk, in terms of being possible
al Qaeda supporters, because of the countries they had visited. Because of
the end-year security alert, the U.S. authorities didn't want to take any
risks," Jacquard said.

"But it's supposition. There may well be more checks on these people,
inquiries may be started, but we are not at the operational stage, so to
speak."

Three days ago, the U.S. government warned Americans there was a high risk
militants might strike over Christmas.

"Earl Evleth" wrote in message
...
Maybe terrorists are like WMDs, they
disappear when you start looking for them.

Earl

****


Isn't that exactly what terrorists are good at?

They have been looking for OBL for some ten years and haven't found him.
Does that mean he doesn't exist?

Gerrit

"Gerrit 't Hart" wrote:

"Earl Evleth" wrote in message

Maybe terrorists are like WMDs, they
disappear when you start looking for them.

Earl


Isn't that exactly what terrorists are good at?

They have been looking for OBL for some ten years and haven't found him.
Does that mean he doesn't exist?

Not to worry, Osama will no doubt be captured and paraded by the US in
September, maybe early October. Just in time for the elections.

M

On Thu, 25 Dec 2003 19:55:00 -0500, Minou
wrote:

"Gerrit 't Hart" wrote:

"Earl Evleth" wrote in message

Maybe terrorists are like WMDs, they
disappear when you start looking for them.

Earl


Isn't that exactly what terrorists are good at?

They have been looking for OBL for some ten years and haven't found him.
Does that mean he doesn't exist?

Not to worry, Osama will no doubt be captured and paraded by the US in
September, maybe early October. Just in time for the elections.

And then the world can live free of terror once again.
---
DFM

Minou staggered to the nearest keyboard
and wrote:

"Gerrit 't Hart" wrote:

"Earl Evleth" wrote in message

Maybe terrorists are like WMDs, they
disappear when you start looking for them.

Earl


Isn't that exactly what terrorists are good at?

They have been looking for OBL for some ten years and haven't found him.
Does that mean he doesn't exist?

Not to worry, Osama will no doubt be captured and paraded by the US in
September, maybe early October. Just in time for the elections.

Reprinted without permission, from www.scrappleface.com:


Bush Orders 'Poorly Managed' Bin Laden Capture

(2003-12-23) -- To minimize criticism that he is manipulating news
events for personal political benefit, President George Bush has
ordered the Pentagon to ensure that the eventual capture of Usama bin
Laden appears "poorly managed."

According to a leaked memo from Mr. Bush to top aides, the president
was enraged at suggestions that the administration had scheduled the
arrest of Saddam Hussein to give Mr. Bush a year-end boost in the
polls.

"I don't want to give critics a chance to accuse me of political
motives in the war on terror," Mr. Bush wrote. "So, make sure your
people do everything in their power to 'catch' UBL at a time, and in a
way that cannot possibly benefit me or the Bush 2004 campaign."

In the memo, the president suggested several "alternative UBL capture
scenarios":

-- "Get Pervez [Musharraf, President of Pakistan] to invite French
President Chirac to Pakistan for a meeting, and then let Chirac
'stumble upon' UBL while he's out digging for truffles or something."
-- "Tranquilize UBL and leave him in the makeup room backstage at the
Fleet Center during the Democrat convention in July."
-- "Have our Special Forces boys wear baby-blue helmets for the
photos."

White House insiders say the president's political advisor, Karl Rove,
is tasked with "keeping the president's name out of the papers" for at
least a week after the arrest of Mr. Bin Laden.


--
hambu n hambu hodo

"Charles Hawtrey" wrote:

Minou staggered to the nearest keyboard
and wrote:

Reprinted without permission, from www.scrappleface.com:

Bush Orders 'Poorly Managed' Bin Laden Capture

snip

Mr. Hawtrey, do you have something original to say then?

hambu n hambu hodo

Oh yes, of course.

Gerrit 't Hart writes:

Isn't that exactly what terrorists are good at?

They aren't very good at it. The problem is that the people looking for
them are often bad at that.

They have been looking for OBL for some ten years and
haven't found him. Does that mean he doesn't exist?

It means that the people who seek him aren't very good at looking.

--
Transpose hotmail and mxsmanic in my e-mail address to reach me directly.

Deep Freud Moors writes:

And then the world can live free of terror once again.

Too bad it won't be free in any other way by then.

--
Transpose hotmail and mxsmanic in my e-mail address to reach me directly.

On 26/12/03 0:44, in article ,
"Gerrit 't Hart" wrote:


"Earl Evleth" wrote in message
...
Maybe terrorists are like WMDs, they
disappear when you start looking for them.

Earl

****


Isn't that exactly what terrorists are good at?

They are "good" at accomplishing what they accomplish, like
on 9/11. They have an agenda and not getting caught
is part of the job but not the main reason for it. They better
be good at that good.

They have been looking for OBL for some ten years and haven't found him.
Does that mean he doesn't exist?


Clarification. Who is OBL? The only long term hunt I remember is for
Carlos, which succeeded but long after he ceased being an important
player.

We visit the prison at Clairvaux every two weeks and at times we
have met past terrorists in the meeting area. They know the
man we visit and we are introduced. We also get to know a bit
àbout them.

My experience is that the French are generally pretty good at putting
terrorists away but they seem particular adept at avoiding wasting time on
false leads. I already recounted in another posting my personal experience
in this area in being pulled in for questioning.

Earl

On 26/12/03 3:34, in article ,
"Deep Freud Moors" wrote:

And then the world can live free of terror once again.
---


When was it ever free?

Earl