US 'extremely concerned' about possible attacks - expert

The US must have been “extremely concerned” about a possible Christmas terror attack to ask for the suspension of flights from France, a terrorism expert said today.

Six commercial Air France flights, flying last night and today between Paris and Los Angeles, were cancelled.

A spokesman for the office of the French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said the flights were cancelled after what US authorities described as “very credible” information that two or three people, possibly Tunisians, were planning to board the flights.

Authorities have refused to comment on reports that intelligence agencies believed al Qaida operatives may have been involved.

Three of the flights were scheduled to take off yesterday – two from Paris and one from Los Angeles.

The three other flights were to have departed today – two from Los Angeles and one from Paris. Air France arranged overnight accommodation for several hundred passengers.

British passenger Nigel Pickett from London told reporters: “I feel fine about taking other flights, you’ve got to stick with it.”

Judy Burns from Manchester added: “There is a lot of conflict. You can’t let it rule your life. You’ve got to take your chances.”

Professor Paul Wilkinson, professor of international relations and director of the centre for the study of terrorism and political violence at St Andrews University, said: “Whatever the disagreements there may be, that has not got in the way of co-operation against terrorism. Co-operation is at a high level.

“The United States Government must have had some confirmation that was sufficiently solid to lead them to make this request to the French.

“They are unlikely to have made such a request on the basis of mere speculation. They must have had some kind of intelligence which suggested this.

“It is unusual to have a major European airline being asked to suspend flights.”

He added that the US intelligence services were well respected and they must have been “extremely concerned” about a possible threat.

“There will be many people celebrating in the New Year with lots of people crowded in public places,” he said.

“Terrorists might conclude that security will be more relaxed at holiday time.”

The cancellations came almost exactly two years after the arrest of so-called “shoe bomber” Richard Reid.

Reid, a British convert to Islam, was arrested on December 22, 2001 when he tried to detonate explosives in his shoes on American Airlines flight 63 from Paris to Miami. He was sentenced to life in a US prison.