PARIS, Jan. 7, 2004
Tracking A World Of Threats
From French Airports To Philippines Jungle, Terror Scares Abound
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Police on patrol on front of an Air France jet at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris (AP)
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As the United States continued on high terror alert Wednesday, reports indicated the sheer breadth of the possible targets terrorists might choose and the wide measures taken to prevent them.
French authorities are searching for a passenger who did not turn up for a scheduled Air France flight on Christmas Eve, France's justice minister confirmed Wednesday.
"I confirm that we are looking for someone, but I can't say more," Justice Minister Dominique Perben said in an interview with RMC radio.
"What's important when someone doesn't take a plane is to know why he didn't take it," Perben added.
Other French officials say an Afghan man whose name is on a U.S. terror watch list is being sought, but it's not clear if they're one and the same, reports CBS News Correspondent Steve Holt.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports the U.S. - concerned that terrorists might attempt to detonate a "dirty bomb" during the holidays - sent nuclear scientists to five major cities to search for the radiological devices.
The newspaper said the casually dressed scientists concealed detection equipment in golf bags and briefcases while they looked for evidence of the bombs in New York, Washington, Baltimore, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
Also Wednesday, an international terrorist expert warned that al Qaeda is expected to launch attacks every three months in 2004, with growing threats from a number of smaller terrorist organizations
The greatest threats include Al Ansar Al Islami in Iraq, Jemaah Islamiyah in Southeast Asia, Al Ansar Mujahidin in Chechnya, the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Salafi Group for Call and Combat in Algeria, Rohan Gunaratna told a Southeast Asian outlook forum.
"Small, disparate organizations mounting operations are in many ways Osama bin Laden's greatest achievement," said Gunaratna.
Gunaratna said a fresh batch of Jemaah Islamiyah terrorists will graduate Jan. 15 from a camp in the southern Philippines. Based in Indonesia, Jemaah Islamiyah is an al Qaeda funded regional group believed responsible for the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, among other terrorist attacks in the region.
Sidney Jones, the Indonesian project director for the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, supported Gunaratna's assessment on the Philippines being a Jemaah Islamiyah training ground.
In related developments:
The French minister Perben's comments were in response to a report by U.S. television network ABC saying that European authorities were searching for a man with alleged al Qaeda links who failed to board an Air France flight on Christmas Eve.
The report cited unidentified American officials as saying the passenger had a French passport and was believed to have undergone training in Afghanistan.
The report also quoted French officials as saying that the man was feared to have a small bomb whose components might get past airport security. The report said he was ticketed for Air France flight 68 from Paris to Los Angeles on Dec. 24.
The flight was one of six Air France flights between Paris and Los Angeles on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day that was canceled following security talks between U.S. and French officials.
Separately, French judicial officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said investigators were looking for an Afghan man, named Abdou Hai, whose name appears on a U.S. terrorism watch list.
His last name matches that of a passenger who was ticketed to board flight 68 but did not show up, the officials said. Investigators have not yet established whether the Afghan man and the absent passenger are one in the same.
The officials said the man being pursued is not known to counter-intelligence authorities, and no judicial investigation has been opened.
Meanwhile, a British Airways flight from London to Washington, which was canceled twice last week over security fears, was delayed for the fourth consecutive day Tuesday because of U.S.-requested security checks.
British pilots won assurances from the government Tuesday that they will be told when armed sky marshals are on board their flights, but demanded to know where the guard is seated and to be able to maintain regular contact.
Until it receives such assurances, the British Air Line Pilots' Association said it would advise its members — nearly 90 percent of Britain's 9,200 commercial pilots — not to fly with a sky marshal.
Several countries have rejected the call for the armed guards by the United States. Civil aviation authorities in Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Portugal all said they would not allow the sky marshals to travel and would instead cancel flights if there was a strong suspicion of a planned attack.
South African Airways also said it did not believe marshals were warranted and that its present security arrangements, emphasizing prevention on the ground, were adequate.
©MMIV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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