<font size=4>Official: U.S. Hoped To Trap Terrorists Before Cancellations
Homeland Security Officials Frustrated News Of 'Security Concerns' Got Out
PARIS -- The U.S. government had been hoping to snag some terrorists on flights between Paris and Los Angeles before the flights were canceled and news of security concerns was publicized, a U.S. official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
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The French government and Air France say six flights were canceled at the urging of the U.S. Embassy in Paris. U.S. and European officials said "credible" security threats prompted the cancellations.
The flights scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday were called off because of information obtained "in the framework of the French-American fight against terrorism," the French prime minister's office said.
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The U.S. official cited by the AP said Washington had been hoping to keep the negotiations confidential, adding that the hope was "that we would be able to lure some of these people in."
There was some frustration in the Department of Homeland Security that the word got out about the security concerns, the official said.
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A spokesman for the French prime minister's office said the decision to cancel the flights came after U.S. authorities alerted France that "two or three" suspicious people were planning to board the flights.
French television station LCI reported that U.S. authorities believed members of al-Qaida may have been planning to board the planes.
The airline is trying to arrange accommodations for the passengers whose flights were called off. They include three flights from Paris to Los Angeles, and three return flights.
Transportation Security Administration spokesman Brian Doyle said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has been meeting with officials from the French government in recent days over concerns about a possible terrorist attack.
Doyle said Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has personally been involved in the briefings with the French officials, as well as officials from other nations. Doyle declined to name other countries that had been contacted.
News of the security concern comes three days after the U.S. government, citing increased "chatter" heard while monitoring terrorists, raised the nation's terrorist-attack warning level to it's second-highest stage, orange, for "high" alert.
Ridge said Monday that intelligence information indicates al-Qaida is seeking again to use planes as weapons as they did on Sept. 11, 2001. Ridge said terrorists are constantly evaluating procedures to find holes in security.
Ridge said information indicates that "extremists abroad" are anticipating "near-term attacks" that they believe will "rival or exceed" those experienced in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001.
A law enforcement official who asked to remain anonymous told The Associated Press earlier this week that some intercepted communications and other intelligence mentions New York, Washington and unspecified cities on the West Coast.
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