According to the DRUDGE REPORT, the Washington Post's lead article will be that the reason why the Air France flights were cancelled last night from France to L.A. was because terrorists were planning on using aircraft again to attack another major city---this time, Las Vegas.
LAS VEGAS-----INTENDED TO BE ATTACKED !!!
by minimus 32 Replies latest jw friends
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gumby
this time, Las Vegas.
If anybody even thinks of harming Wayne Newton......I'm gonna kick their ass!
Gumby
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Gopher
Maybe they're upset with Celine Dion, performing at the price of $200 per seat???
Nothing is showing up yet on the Washington Post website yet regarding this "Las Vegas" theory -- I guess we'll have to wait and see if Drudge dredged up the right information or if it is dregs.
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minimus
It will be in tomorrow's front page. Check out Drudgereport.com
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Elsewhere
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30985-2003Dec25.html
Suspicious Passengers Questioned In France
13 Were to Fly to L.A., Have Been ReleasedBy John Mintz and John Burgess
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, December 26, 2003; Page A01U.S. government officials said yesterday they believe some of the passengers boarding one of the three Air France flights from Paris to Los Angeles that were canceled this week because of security concerns might have intended to hijack it and crash-land in Las Vegas.
Police in Paris questioned 13 people who had checked in for two Air France flights that were canceled Christmas Eve because of a terrorism warning from U.S. authorities, but no evidence of wrongdoing was found, the French Interior Ministry said. All 13 were released.
But U.S. officials said they are suspicious about some of the passengers who did not show up at the airport to claim their seats on the ultimately aborted Flight 68 from Paris to Los Angeles. One of those who did not appear for the Christmas Eve flight apparently is a trained pilot, one U.S. official said.
"We still have an interest in talking to those people who didn't show up," said one U.S. official knowledgeable about the investigation. "There might be more to come on this."
Despite French statements suggesting some of the American fears about the Air France flights were unfounded, U.S. government officials said they believe they might have averted a terrorist attack by arranging for the flights' cancellation. Officials said they feared that al Qaeda operatives planned to hijack one of the flights and use the plane as a missile to attack a site on or near its route.
Moreover, U.S. officials said intelligence indicators suggest that al Qaeda might have set other terrorist operations in motion that do not involve aviation and are not centered in California. As on other occasions when terrorist fears are heightened, U.S. officials said their main concern is that al Qaeda might use a chemical or biological weapon, or a radiological "dirty" bomb.
"Our fear is that other things are going on" that have nothing to do with jetliner flights in or out of U.S. airports, said one U.S. official briefed on high-level intelligence. "The concern is that there still could be a lot of activity that was underway."
Another government official with access to the classified reports said U.S. security officials "are really concerned something major will happen" despite the cancellation of the three incoming and three outgoing Air France flights between Paris and Los Angeles on Christmas Eve and yesterday. One scenario embraced by a number of U.S. security officials is that al Qaeda operatives were in the final stages of planning an attack in this country, and were awaiting final direction from al Qaeda superiors to proceed.
"Government people hope that by deploying, they'll shut down whatever might have been in motion," the official said.
In Paris, French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin announced last night that Air France would operate its normal schedule today, following the six canceled flights Wednesday and yesterday. "The grounded flights can be resumed," he said in a statement.
U.S. officials have said they passed on to the French government names of travelers they suspected might try to commandeer the planes on the Paris-Los Angeles route in a terrorist attack.
Seven of the questioned people had checked in at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris for Air France Flight 68 on Christmas Eve, according to a French official. He identified them as four Americans, one German, one French and one Belgian.
The people were taken aside and questioned extensively by police, the official said. Their baggage was searched. But no sign of terrorist connections was found, he said, and all had been released by 7 a.m. Paris time yesterday. Six other passengers who showed up for Flight 70 to Los Angeles were also questioned and released.
The French official played down the Air France cancellations, calling them a "non-event." He added, "There is no danger. . . . And if there was any, specific measures would be taken."
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, U.S. civilian and military air traffic controllers on the ground scrutinize the routes flown by commercial and other aircraft to ensure they do not diverge from their flight plans. Under protocols that are strictly enforced, pilots who depart from their assigned routes are contacted by radio, and if their explanations engender suspicions, military combat aircraft could be launched to intercept them.
For this reason, U.S. officials believe it is unlikely that terrorists would try to divert an Air France Paris-to-Los Angeles flight to a city far from its flight path, such as New York. The Air France flights in question cross the Hudson Bay and eastern Canada before dipping down to airspace over Minnesota, and then taking a sharp southwestern swing toward Southern California.
"The only big city near this route is Las Vegas, which they would consider a nice, attractive target," one informed government official said.
The al Qaeda network has long considered Las Vegas to be one of its top targets for a strike because it sees the city as a citadel of Western licentiousness, U.S. officials said. In recent days, officials said the intelligence that led to the government's imposition on Sunday of the orange, or "high risk," terrorism alert included references to possible al Qaeda interest in Las Vegas.
In response to these fears, Las Vegas was one of the cities where the Department of Homeland Security in recent days installed a number of outdoor air-handling sensors designed to detect biological pathogens that might be released by terrorists. The other cities where new Biowatch sensors were installed are in California, officials said.
Before this week 31 cities across the nation, including several in California, have had several hundreds of the sensors in place since March, when the U.S. invasion of Iraq prompted an orange alert.
Government officials said they also partly based their decision to raise the alert status earlier this week on the statements of an individual knowledgeable about al Qaeda operations who apparently is offering fresh information that is deemed credible.
The cooperation -- and possible chafing -- between France and the United States in the investigation is notable because France led the European opposition to the war in Iraq, and relations with the United States remain strained. But both governments have highlighted continuing cooperation against terrorism.
The Interior Ministry official said the cancellations were good publicity for that relationship. Spokesmen for both governments said Secretary of State Colin L. Powell thanked French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin for France's help in responding to the U.S. warnings.
Both governments have worried that terrorists would try to mount a high-profile attack to disrupt the holiday season.
France is also wary of a repeat of a security slip that in December 2001 allowed Richard Reid, a British citizen, to board a Miami-bound American Airlines flight in Paris with explosives concealed in his shoes. Reid was overpowered by passengers and crew members as he attempted to light fuses of the bombs and is now serving a life sentence in the United States.
In the past two days, about 700 passengers were stranded by the flight cancellations, according to Veronique Brachet, a spokeswoman for Air France.
At Los Angeles International Airport, where security is as tight as it has ever been since the Sept. 11 attacks, some of the incoming flights of Air Tahiti Nui and Aeromexico were being given special attention, aviation sources said. Upon landing, the jets were ordered to taxi to a remote gate, where passengers were questioned and their belongings searched before they were bused to an immigration terminal.
Staff writer Sara Kehaulani Goo and special correspondent Caroline Jolivet contributed to this report. Mintz reported from Washington and Burgess from Paris.
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got my forty homey?
What is it with these animals and airplanes? They seem to have a serious fixation with airplanes. Were these people raised in mud huts or something?
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U.2.K. Tha Greate$t
Hey that's the way this world is, the world suffers and after the suffering comes the rejoicing. I could care less what these idiots is planning on doing. They talking about how They work for GOD and all this crap, but in reality they are working for The devil.
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Derrick
Hi Minimus,
I'll be staying at a major hotel on the main Las Vegas stip at ground-zero of the fireworks show. I was real exciting about the trip with no reservations until now. (I was up late packing and decided what the heck, after so long, why not take a peek at this site before my departure?)
As I was reading the article (and thanks for sharing it) I pictured a few giant birds (jumbo jets) crash landing on the strip into the crowds reading to count-down the new year numbering over half a million. Immediately following that unpleasant thought I pictured an alternate scenario of the biowarning sirens recently installed, over half a million people running in panic and falling to the ground as they're overcome by airborne toxins.
Although your sharing this article triggered these dark thoughts, you might have saved my life because I have no intention of going onto the strip on new year's eve. I'll stay in my suite as I will have a view of the strip.
I'm serious in asking to please pray for my safety and for my thinking only good thoughts in spite of all the tension I might experience on my flight and possibly during my stay. I'm determined to have a relaxing time with the friends whom I'll be visiting!
Best wishes,
Derrick
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Guest 77
"Of what profit is it to them to bomb 'Mafia' City when they can kidnap Bill Gates?" Illum.6:66
Guest 77
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stillajwexelder
The Hoover Dam is very near Las Vegas -- if I were a terrorist that would be an even "juicier" target -- it would devastate the economy, cause wide spread flooding and damage and drain electrical power from the electric grid to Phoenix, Las Vegas and South Eastern California