I was afraid they'd do this.  They've done this before with Lebanese terrorists in the 1980's, capturing terrrorists we want, then letting them go to spite the US and appease the terrorists.  The French are so loathesome, it defies comprehension.

US in row with France over terror operation
By David Rennie in Washington
(Filed: 26/12/2003)

American and French officials yesterday traded mutual recriminations over the failure to snare any terrorists in the security operation that grounded six Air France flights in and out of Los Angeles.

Bush administration officials expressed frustration that al-Qa'eda operatives might have escaped capture after word leaked, early this week, of American concerns about flights from France to the United States over the Christmas period.

One official said Washington had been hoping to keep the US-French negotiations confidential, adding that the hope was that "we would be able to lure some of these people in".

However, a French interior ministry spokesman said little evidence of a terrorist plot had been found.

French authorities released seven men - one French, one American and several Algerians - whose names were found to be on US watch-lists.

The seven men were all due to board a flight on Wednesday and had been briefly questioned. French authorities found nothing to suggest the men had terrorist links.

A spokesman for the French prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, said the decision to cancel the flights came early on Christmas Eve after American authorities notified France that "two or three" suspicious people, possibly Tunisian nationals, were on the manifests of three Los Angeles-bound flights.

M Raffarin's spokesman added that the United States had threatened to refuse the planes permission to land if they took off.

A French judicial official said the name of a Tunisian national with a pilot's licence had appeared on the American list of suspicious people who might attempt to board a flight. But French intelligence officials determined that the man was in Tunisia and had no plans to leave the country.

The official added that the Tunisian had no criminal record and did not belong to any Islamic radical groups.

The cancellations, on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, stranded hundreds of passengers on both sides of the Atlantic.

US sources hit back at French scepticism, saying American intelligence agencies had intercepted e-mails from the al-Qa'eda terrorist group suggesting another September 11-style attack was being plotted for the Christmas holiday.

The al-Qa'eda messages referred specifically to Air France and even gave a flight number, officials said. Other warnings have been issued about flights by the Mexican carrier, Aeromexico, it was reported.

US officials said they fear Air France has been infiltrated by Islamic extremists and have criticised French co-operation in providing details of passengers on US-bound flights.

On Monday, the US homeland security secretary, Tom Ridge, raised the nation's terrorist-attack warning level to it's second-highest stage, orange - "high" alert.

Mr Ridge said terrorist "chatter" indicated that "extremists abroad" are anticipating "near-term attacks" that they believe will "rival or exceed" those experienced in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001.

Following the cancellations, Los Angeles airport, the nation's second busiest, was put under an extraorinary security clampdown.

Private cars were banned from dropping off passengers or picking them up at terminals and vehicles entering the complex were searched by armed police who used mirrors to inspect the undersides of cars.

The airport was the target of a millennium bomb plot almost four years ago, which was thwarted when one of the bombers was arrested after crossing into the United States from Canada with explosives in his car.

Mobile anti-aircraft missile systems have been deployed around Washington DC, and US and Canadian fighter pilots remain on high alert.

www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;?xml=/news/2003/12/26/wterr26.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/12/26/ixnewstop.html

Does not surprise me in the least.

Why, oh why, can't we include France in the Axis of Evil?

[b][red]Goddamn motherfucking sons of bitches!!!!!!!![/b][/red]

Fuck them!  Fuck them in the ass!


Goddamn frogs are being overrun by muslims and the french government is already walking on eggshells to appease them.  It’s only a matter of time before they become an outright belligerent nation to the U.S.

Fuck them.

[img]http://flymeaway.net/images/9440.jpg[/img]

Frog BASTARDS!  FUCKING CHEESE-EATING SURRENDER MONKEYS!

Where is that McUzi flamer when you need it?

Goddam their arrogant Gallic asses...I hope their raghead, fudge-packing, terrorist buddies get them one day.

On the other hand, if I were Osama and his crowd, the last country I'd want to hit would be France.  Hell they got a good thing going there...COVER!  The French authrorities are TERRIFIED by their very large and vocal Muslim population.  As the number of white "Christian"  (Yea...RIGHT; the French are Christians?!) Frenchmen continues to decline due to a very low birthrate, the 'grint and home-grown Muslim population soars in France.  In the not-to-distant future, the ragheads will seriously outnumber the "Old Europeans" living in Frogland.  How's that for irony?  The Europeans expel the Ottomans in the 17th Century...finally after centuries of Muslim rule, and just about four centuries later, they're back and taking over...not with swords but by out-fucking the French!  [;D]

Just another nail in the coffin as far as I'm concerned.  The French are NOT our friends.

And this surprises us in what way? The French have been in bed with the Muslim world since day one.



So, the French were not cooperative. We had to threaten them with refusing to allow their planes permission to land before they cancelled the flights. What a bunch of useless pussies the French are!!!!




Uhmm, neither did the 09/11 hijackers [b]before[/b] 09/11.



I can see one benefit to this. At least it kept a few cheese eating surrender monkeys on their side of the pond for a little longer.

In short: [b][size=6]F*CK THE FRENCH!!!![/size=6][/b]

It bears repeating!!

[size=5]FUCK THE FRENCH!!![/size=5]

I hope our intelligence agencies anticipated this and were able to get people into place to follow.

Well that will certainly increase ticket sales on Air France! (Sarcasim)

Yeah...and the white horse they rode in on!

No good deed goes unpunished.
Not only was the US trying to stop a potential terrorist flight before it took off but they were trying to avoid the inevitable international incident that would result from a US F15 shooting down an inbound Air france flight.

One main reason Osama's boys have picked Air France and Aeromexico is they know that Powell and the rest of the pussies at the state dept are dead set against shooting those flights down. Not to mention the piss poor security.

Remember what Uncle Colin says boys and girls, the french and the saudis are our friends. [banghead]

I don't know why any of this surprises any of you.....we're all going to hell in a hand basket and theres nothing we can do to stop it.

just load up on the ammo and join the party when the bombs start falling.

anything less and your just fooling yourself.