December 29, 2003
U.S. tells foreign carriers to use sky marshalls
U.S. Tells Foreign Carriers to Put Guards on Planes
One week after raising its terror alert level, the U.S. government on Monday ordered foreign airlines to place armed marshals on selected flights to and from the United States in a bid to boost security and thwart attacks.
[...]
Last week six Air France flights between Paris and Los Angeles were canceled on security concerns expressed by U.S. intelligence. French authorities detained 13 people who had been booked on the flights but released them after finding no links to radical groups.
Who knows what the real story was behind the Air France incident?
Did the French (Islamist Terror's new best nation-state friend) give these bad guys a heads-up by arresting them, giving them cover and sending them out to get new false IDs and passports, or were the French just going through the motions, trying to convince us that they're also on our side in the GWOIT, or did their actions accomplish both things?
Maybe they did help America dodge another bullet.
Let's hope.
This request that foreign carriers employ more security like air marshalls on transatlantic flights should have been implemented right after 9/11, if not before.
I suppose Norm Mineta fixated on the fact that all 4 of the 9/11 attack planes were domestic flights.
But then we found out that Mohammed Atta and several of the other hijackers were based in Germany.
And there was Richard Reid, the shoe bomber who boarded an American Airlines plane in Paris, at Christmastime 2001.
We're more than 2 years too late, but of course, better late than never.
And if the French can't do better, I suggest we ban all direct U.S.-France flights.
Notice that the British announced they'd be using more air security and sky marshalls on international flights without being asked by us.
*Some countries* know how important their American tourists are and how important it is to maintain good relations with us, not to mention the prevention of terror attacks on their own soil.
Then there's France.
