Sat, Jan 31, 2004
Once Again, Overseas Flights Appear To Be Targets
The bad news is that, once again,
there is "specific and credible" information that terrorists --
possibly linked to al Qaeda -- want to hijack foreign flag
passenger aircraft and crash them into targets inside the United
States. The good news, if it can be called that, is that the
threats don't appear as serious as they were over the holidays.
Over a three week period starting around Christmas, 15 flights
headed for the US from other countries were canceled. Dozens of
other flights were delayed as authorities searched passengers,
passenger lists and luggage for possible hazards.
Most of the flights affected were headed to LAX or Washington
Dulles. Most were either British Airways or Air France
flights.
Homeland Security and TSA officials late Friday said the same
airlines and perhaps the same airports appear to be targeted in
this latest round of terror threats. The officials didn't give any
further details.
Those threats were enough for the Homeland Security Department
to raise the terror threat assessment level to Orange (high) on
December 21st. The alert level was lowered again on January 9th.
But at the time, NBC quoted one senior official as saying, "We are
still not out of the weeds -- we continue to be concerned."
What they are saying right now is that the terror threat
assessment level won't be raised for the time being. It will remain
-- at least for now -- at "elevated" or yellow alert.
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