Air France jet turned back by US

[cal04]

US authorities have ordered an Air France flight from Paris to Chicago to turn around after only two hours in the air after concerns about a passenger. "After the plane had left the Americans reacted and said that one of the passengers had a name that was on their list," French police said.

Flight AF050 landed at Charles de Gaulle airport at 1915 (1715 GMT) on Friday, four hours after taking off. The passenger in question and four others were taken for checks. There was no information given on the names of the passengers, their age or nationalities.

Air France said the flight would take off again in the evening, after the plane had been checked over. French police said flights from France to Britain and the United States were being treated with extra caution following Thursday's bomb attacks in London, AFP reported. In May flights from Italy and France to Boston were diverted because of fears about passengers on board.

In September last year a flight carrying the singer Cat Stevens to the US was diverted because the name he adopted when he became a Muslim, Yusuf Islam, was on the US no-fly list.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4666317.stm

[RedSock]

1. Brilliant

How about checking the no-fly list BEFORE the plane is in the air?

(Probably all fear-mongering BS anyway.)

[Garfield Goose]

2. Doesn't France have a list?

If not, they should, and this interruption could have been avoided.

[LiberallyInclined]

8. it may not be the same list.

and perhaps the passenger has the same/similar name as someone on the u.s. list, had been checked out and cleared by france, but the u.s. wasn't satisfied...?

just speculatin'

[Garfield Goose]

9. Sounds like both countries

need to get their shit together and get on the same wavelength?

[mitchtv]

14. Maybe Air France could change their name to

Freedom Air!

[LiberallyInclined]

16. hey garfield-

how's boulregarde burnside III doin' these days?

[Garfield Goose]

24. Beauregard is fine

As is Rombert Rabbit and Clutch Cargo.

[HereSince1628]

25. Any word on Mrs Magilicutty?

[Garfield Goose]

26. She shacked up with Ray Rayner

[HereSince1628]

27. Oh, no, say it ain't so!

[LiberallyInclined]

30. Speaking of Ray Rayner- have you seen what he was up to recently?-

i had trouble watching Kill Bill 2, because i kept laughing to myself at how much david carridine was looking like the arizona-aged-and-weathered ray rayner.

[Kellanved]

10. Not really

European authorities have a copy of the US list; in exchange the US authorities get the passenge data of international and some domestic European flights.

[Eugene]

11. Problem is that the U.S. bans based on partial matches

on the no-fly list. Several false alarms
came from people having the same last names
as suspected terrorists.

[leesa]

18. They do this to Air France pretty routinely. It's punishment for Iraq

most likely. France probably has a reasonable list, while the US has old ladies and Cat Stevens.

[goclark]

3. How about checking those off course planes over the WH nt

[LiberallyInclined]

7. knowing the U.S., and the * mis-administration in particular...

they probably don't let any other country, especially France- see who's on their list.

[floda]

4. it must have been in the the Al Jazeera news crawl !

NBC REPORTS ON BOGUS TERROR ALERT

The Department of Homeland Security raised the U.S. terror alert from yellow to orange in December 2003 after the CIA reported that technicians at its Directorate of Science and Technology had concluded that terrorists had embedded secret codes in the news crawl on Al-Jazeera's Arab-language channel, NBC News reported on Tuesday. It added that the technical staff had specifically identified target coordinates and listed flight numbers. At the time Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge stated, "These credible sources suggest the possibility of attacks against the homeland around the holiday season and beyond." The decision to elevate the alert resulted in the cancellation of almost 30 international flights, the network said. In the end, the Office of Homeland Security determined that the CIA's conclusion had no basis in fact. In a statement, al-Jazeera said that it felt vindicated by the report after being repeatedly accused by the Bush administration of supporting terrorism. "We've always said these are politically motivated allegations," a spokesman for the Arab network said.

http://www.movieweb.com/news/news.php?id=8389




:wtf:

[Mz Pip]

5. There was a bomb scare

at the Paris airport a couple of days ago and the airport was evacuated. My friend's flight was delayed and it took her a total of 24 hours to get home.

THey have to be careful, though it would be better if people on a no-fly list never got on the plane in the first place.

To paraphrase Lewis Black, "What part of No-Fly don't you understand?"

Mz Pip
:dem:

[LiberallyInclined]

6. what is the arab equivilent of "john smith" ...?

it's probably on the list too.

[mitchtv]

15. along with Ted Kennedy, and John Lewis

who's next Harry Reid?

[JohnyCanuck]

12. Another sheep has his eyes opened.

Who's Watching the Watch List?

By John Graham

Heading for Oakland from Seattle to see my grandkids last week, the Alaska Airlines check-in machine refused to give me a boarding pass. Directed to the ticket counter, I gave the agent my driver's license and watched her punch keys at her computer.

Frowning, she told me that my name was on the national terrorist No Fly Watch List and that I had to be specially cleared to board a plane. Any plane. Then she disappeared with my license for 10 minutes, returning with a boarding pass and a written notice from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) confirming that my name was on a list of persons "who posed, or were suspected of posing, a threat to civil aviation or national security."

No one could tell me more than that. The computer was certain.

Back home in Seattle, I called the TSA's 800 number, where I rode a merry-go-round of pleasant recorded voices until I gave up. Turning to the TSA web site, I downloaded a Passenger Identity Verification form that would assist the TSA in "assessing" my situation if I sent it in with a package of certified documents attesting to who I was

<snip>

I'm embarrassed that it took my own ox being gored for me to see the threat posed by the Administration's current restricting of civil liberties. I'm being accused of a serious--even treasonous--criminal intent by a faceless bureaucracy, with no opportunity (that I can find) to refute any errors or false charges. My ability to earn a living is threatened; I speak on civic action and leadership all over the world, including recently at the US Air Force Academy. Plane travel is key to my livelihood.

http://www.alternet.org/story/23362

[kestrel91316]

17. Gee, I wonder if this guy John Graham ...............

voted for *.

Betcha he did.................

[efhmc]

19. So, so love this story. May it happen to ALL repukes!!!!

[bvar22]

20. Help this happen to ALL repukes.

Start turning them in to the Homeland Security Dept.
Anonymous accusations WILL BE added to the TIA file.
Don't use your home computer or return address.

Who REALLY knows if some of those people with Bush/Cheney stickers on their SUV actually meet with swarthy middle Easterners in the basement where they keep a computer Flight Simulator, a cache of AK-47s, and wall mounted posters of Mecca, Osama, and Muammar Kadafi ! The ONLY way to defeat a system like TIA is to turn in EVERYBODY. The system CAN be overwhelmed with BOGUS info.

Pretty soon, NO ONE will be able to get on an airplane.

PSST: You didn't hear it from me.

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. Hmmm, this article doesn't sound like a Republican

...
Our government continues to pay lip service to global problems of hunger and disease, while every day, 24,000 lives are lost quietly to hunger all over the earth, unseen and unnoted here. An estimated $13 billion dollars a year would feed the hungry, worldwide. To give some perspective to that number, $13 billion is 1% of the tax cut just passed by Congress. The gap between the world's rich and poor grows; television and the Internet make even the most squalid camps and villages aware of it.

And the anger against us grows, including among many people who are not Islamic zealots and who themselves are not violent. All that people like Osama bin Laden have to do is manipulate this anger, turning it into support for a focused instrument of mass murder.
Now we grieve, and our government moves, as it must, to increase domestic security, and to find and destroy the terrorist cells.

But if we are to truly end the threat of terrorism against us, we must also eliminate the reasons why so many people support it. We must convince our government to implement policies toward the Third World that reflect our basic fairness and compassion as a people. That should include three things:
First-taking the lead in helping Third World nations feed their people and eliminate preventable diseases like dysentery and cholera.

Second-promoting global trade, aid and investment policies that help Third World countries strengthen and diversify their economies and improve education. Corporations must understand that they exist to serve not only the providers of capital, but also the providers of labor and the communities in which those laborers live.
...

http://www.ngws.org/service/Articles/PoliciesAsGood.htm

though writing articles like that might explain why a vengeful government put him on the 'no fly' list.

[txindy]

21. That was my reaction, too, when I read this article.

Now that Graham is the one inconvenienced, suddenly he starts talking about frogs and boiling water!

What a self-involved hypocrite, he is.

[orleans]

22. and the last paragraph in the article says:

"I know what I will do. If my name is not removed completely from the Watch List in 45 days I will use every resource I've got to challenge the government of a country that I love and have served. In all the press about identity theft, I find myself railing at having my identity as a patriot stolen--by my own government. This must not stand."

(hope he doesn't have an "accident" in the near future. and i sincerely mean that.)

he doesn't understand why he's on the watch list. i'll give him three reasons:

1. "Since 1983 I've helped lead the Giraffe Heroes Project, a nonprofit that moves people to stick their necks out for the common good. In the tradition of Gandhi, King and Mandela, that can include challenging public policies people think are unjust. "

2. "I've just written a book about activating citizens to get to work on whatever problems they care about, instead of sitting around complaining."

3. "I'm also engaged in international peacemaking"

wake up little Sheba. in the eyes of the bush administration you ARE a terrorist!

[tanyev]

13. And soon, nobody will even bother coming here anymore

unless they absolutely have to. The airlines will love that.

[wli]

28. already the case among some people for years

After the DMCA a large number of European and British computer specialists I know refused to set foot in or fly over or use layovers in the US. This was not so much out of protest as concern about attempts to use the DMCA to harass foreign programmers by competing software companies.

[efhmc]

29. Now that is an interesting concept. Let's use it as a competitive business

device.