U.S. continues to see threat of terrorist hijacks

By Josh Meyer and Sebastian Rotella
Los Angeles Times

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U.S. intelligence officials said they continued to receive credible intelligence indicating that such an attack could be in the works — possibly a series of coordinated hijackings — and that al-Qaida operatives could be targeting any number of overseas cities from which to launch operations against urban areas, symbolic targets or parts of the infrastructure, including nuclear plants and petroleum facilities.

"This is a broad and serious threat that is not going to disappear with the cancellation of one or two flights," said one U.S. official who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity. "There is a lot of crisscrossing (intelligence) data that points to certain flights, certain times and certain countries. It's not just in one location, point of departure or arrival. It's not only France, and it's not only L.A."

Officials said they were particularly concerned about what appeared to be incomplete information coming out of Paris about the fate of several men whose names had appeared on the passenger manifest of an Air France flight headed to Los Angeles early Christmas Eve.

The men were scheduled to board Flight 68, one of three that were canceled Wednesday at the urgent request of the U.S. and French governments, based on U.S. intelligence. Air France announced flights will resume today.

The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday that U.S. officials had told French authorities that as many as half a dozen passengers on Flight 68 might be al-Qaida or Taliban terrorists, and that one was a trained pilot with a commercial license.

French authorities yesterday said they searched and questioned at least seven passengers who had checked in for Flight 68 at Charles de Gaulle Airport, and that they made no arrests. Six other passengers who showed up for Flight 70 to Los Angeles also were questioned and released.

"Some people were interrogated, and their baggage was searched. But they are free," said the official, who asked to remain anonymous. "Nothing in particular was found. No terrorists were identified. There is nothing new today and no problems."

But one U.S. official said yesterday that at least some of the men whose names had been given to the French never showed up at the airport — including the man believed to be a pilot.

"We haven't heard the full story," one U.S. official said.

More information surfaced yesterday about why U.S. officials were so fearful that the three Air France flights might be targeted.

One U.S. official, citing electronic intercepts, said terrorist operatives had been overheard discussing specific flight numbers and airlines without mentioning a specific day, while other conversations alluded to attacks on the Christmas holiday "and other days."

Moreover, The Washington Post reported in today's editions, U.S. officials said intelligence indicators suggest that al-Qaida might have set other terrorist operations in motion that do not involve aviation and are not centered in California. U.S. officials said their main concern is that al-Qaida 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, the Post quoted a U.S. official as saying. "The concern is that there still could be a lot of activity that was under way."

French authorities said they took the U.S. request seriously: After a flurry of high-level conversations between the two governments Wednesday, the office of the prime minister announced the cancellations based on information relayed by the U.S. Embassy in Paris.

"This decision to cancel the flights was taken at the highest level," a senior French law-enforcement official said. "But this was all based on information coming from the Americans. And apparently nothing was found."

Those singled out for questioning at the airport Wednesday included citizens of the United States, France and Belgium, the French interior ministry official said. He did not say whether the passengers had Arab names and did not give the precise number of those questioned.

But French media reported yesterday that police questioned two men of Arab origin who turned out to be a diplomat and an athlete.

French media also reported that U.S. law enforcement provided French counterparts with a name of a Tunisian with a pilot's license as a potential suspect.

But the Tunisian was not on the passenger lists and appears to be in his native country, according to the reports.

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