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01/02/2004 Archived Entry: "No word on whether they were carrying almanacs..."
No word on whether they were carrying almanacs...
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
A junior French minister has indirectly confirmed that French and US fighter jets have been tracking passenger planes amid heightened security.His comments came as France accused the FBI of making mistakes over identifying "suspicious" names on passenger lists.
Concerns over the passengers led to the halting of six flights between Paris and Los Angeles at Christmas.
Reports said one of the US-identified "suspects" was in fact a child and another was a Welsh insurance salesman.
Junior Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau confirmed reports that US fighter jets escorted two Air France flights into Los Angeles earlier this week.
Why do I get the feeling that this 'terror alert' is every bit as ginned-up as Bush's WMD intelligence? More from Yahoo News:
Six cases of mistaken identity were behind the pre-Christmas grounding of six Air France flights between Paris and Los Angeles over terrorism fears, a police official said Friday.The names of six passengers were similar to those of terrorist suspects provided by the FBI, prompting the French government to halt the flights, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Pierre Debue, director of the French border police, said one name on the list turned out to be that of a 5-year-old child. The Wall Street Journal on Friday said two other suspected terrorists turned out to be an elderly Chinese woman and a Welsh insurance agent.
French police officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said errors in spelling and transcription of Arabic names played a role in the mix-up. But Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said it was better to err on the side of caution.
"It's a period of tension and a period of risk," he said. "I prefer the principle of precaution."
U.S. intelligence officials told their French counterparts that members of the al-Qaida terrorist network might try to board the planes over Christmas, French judicial officials have said.
But careful scrutiny of passenger manifests and the brief questioning of seven passengers failed to turn up evidence that a suicide hijacking was in the works.
Replies: 4 people speak up
All of this so they have something to point to and say "See we keep you safe! Vote GOP!"
And it works, I've already seen a lot of "Homeland saved Vegas!" comments.
It's a good racket, if something does happen they can say "Hey we did all we could!"
One more year, one more year.
Posted by salvage @ 01/02/2004 01:01 PM NY
"...a Welsh insurance agent..."? This could be yet another al-Qaeda stratagem:
There's a knock at your front door. A pleasant-looking man in a suit and carrying a briefcase smiles at you and claims to be an insurance salesman. Forgetting the Orange Alert frenzy, you foolishly let him in. He opens his suitcase and asks, "Sir, could I interest you in whole-life, term-life, or how about this...WMD?"
Not so funny, is it, punk?
Posted by Metropolitan99 @ 01/02/2004 01:10 PM NY
I totally agree salvage. This is the best thing they've got going for them. What a great racket, if nothing happens then it MUST be because they are doing such a good job, and if something happens, well... we warned ya!
Posted by sellursoul @ 01/02/2004 05:52 PM NY
personally, i'm terrified by welsh insurance salesmen. if you fall behind on paying the premium, all of wales could suddenly raid your refrigerator. who keeps that much beer at any one time?
Posted by scott @ 01/02/2004 07:45 PM NY
