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You gotta hand it to al qada if todays information is true. Using Air France to target the US. Something tells me if that happened Mr. Chirac would have needed his own spider hole.

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http://news.myway.com/top/article/id/33 ... uters.html

France Cancels Paris-LA Flights Over Qaeda Threat


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Dec 24, 4:01 PM (ET)

By Gerard Bon and Gina Keating
PARIS/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The French government asked Air France on Wednesday to cancel Paris-Los Angeles flights over Christmas after the United States provided information al Qaeda may have "infiltrated" the carrier.

A Department of Homeland Security official told Reuters that U.S. officials, on heightened alert for possible attacks over the holiday period, had scoured passenger lists of the planes and detected a "credible threat" from an al Qaeda operative.

Air France said it had canceled six departing and returning flights on December 24 and 25 at the prime minister's request.

The airline was named in a Washington Post report on Wednesday that said U.S. officials were putting foreign carriers under scrutiny as part of precautions against another September 11-style attack.

French officials said some passengers had been prevented from boarding flights but there were no arrests.

"Air France has canceled the flights scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, December 24 and 25, between Paris and Los Angeles," French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's office said in a statement.

"This measure was taken at the request of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin on the basis of information, currently being checked, which was gathered in the framework of Franco-American cooperation in the fight against terrorism and which was of a nature to threaten the safety of these flights."

French LCI television said the information was based on e-mails suggesting al Qaeda could be planning an attack on civilian flights from Paris to the United States over Christmas.

The United States blames Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network for the hijacked airliner attacks on Washington and New York on September 11, 2001, which killed some 3,000 people.

The U.S. government warned Americans there was a high risk of even bigger attacks during the holidays when it raised its terror alert to the second highest level on Sunday.

"Of course. The Americans' big fear is a repeat of September 11," a French government source said when asked whether U.S. officials were concerned that al Qaeda militants could hijack a flight.

The source said there had been a number of inter-ministerial meetings in recent days over the security threat. He also said that for now, there were no plans to cancel other flights.

AXED

Air France said it had canceled Los Angeles-bound flights AF068 and AF070 on Wednesday and AF068 on Thursday. The return flights to Paris, AF069 on Wednesday and AF071 and AF069 on Thursday, were also axed. Air France and Delta Airlines are code share partners.

"Air France is working to take care of its customers and is trying to find the best way to re-route them," an Air France spokeswoman said.

There have been security scares on transatlantic flights from Paris before. In December 2001, Briton Richard Reid tried to ignite an explosive device hidden in his shoe during a flight to Miami. He was overpowered and later convicted in the attack attempt.

French officials said the Americans were not willing to leave anything to chance.

"The U.S. has signaled that we should reinforce surveillance on certain flights. We have been checking the identities of certain passengers and there are people who were not able to board. We are being particularly vigilant," a French Transport Ministry spokeswoman told Reuters.

A Washington Post report on Wednesday said new U.S. intelligence had prompted greater scrutiny into whether foreign airports and airlines posed a security threat.

The newspaper reported that officials had declined to identify the carriers involved. But it quoted industry sources as saying passengers coming into at least one major U.S. international airport on Air France and flights from Mexico would be subject to more security procedures from Wednesday.