Baby suspected for terrorism

[Chemical Ollie]

Source: BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3363291.stm

A junior French minister has indirectly confirmed that French and US fighter jets have been tracking passenger planes amid heightened security.
His comments came as France accused the FBI of making mistakes over identifying "suspicious" names on passenger lists.

Concerns over the passengers led to the halting of six flights between Paris and Los Angeles at Christmas.

Reports said one of the US-identified "suspects" was in fact a child and another was a Welsh insurance salesman.

Junior Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau confirmed reports that US fighter jets escorted two Air France flights into Los Angeles earlier this week.

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A report in Friday's edition of the Wall Street Journal said a child was among the passengers singled out, because its name was similar to that of a wanted Tunisian.

The other "suspects" turned out to be an elderly Chinese ex-restaurateur, a Welsh insurance salesman and three French nationals, the paper alleged.

I wonder how long before a hot-headed F-16 pilot (or rather his superiors) downs a civilian airliner based on evidence like this. We all remember the Iranian airliner in the 80's.

[Ecthy]

What about that Iranian airliner?

[Solver]

Also remember the Korean civilian flight that the USSR shot down because it might have been an alien craft...

[Ecthy]

please elaborate about all of those.

[Heresson]

My uncle was suspected of terrorism and forced out of a train somewhere in Germany. It'd be funny if You knew how my uncle looks.

[mrmitchell]

PARANOIA IS TEH SUCK

[Ecthy]

like Hitler?

[Ecthy]

he must have done something weird, our train staff are mostly harmless

[BeBMan]

Korean Airlines B747 (1983?) downed by Soviet fighter jets - the Soviets claimed it was on a spy mission, but it had lots of passengers on board. Probably confused with an US RC135 recon plane and therefore shot down. I´m sure there are a lot of conspiracy theories about this one out there

Iranian (Airbus?) 1988 shot down by guided missile fired from a US warship in the gulf because mistaken as Iranian warplane.

In both cases over 200 deaths IIRC.

[Ecthy]

what about that one incident with Israel... there was one...

[Imran Siddiqui]

Dude, I saw that kid. He was shady and stuff .

[Solver]

In 1983, USSR shot down a Boeing 747 civilian plane from Korea, as they were seriously investigating the UFO threat at that time. Apparently, seeing the plane on the radar, they decided it's a UFO, and they received no answer to communication attempts (I'd blame the Soviet machines for that...). The plane was considered a threat, and orders were given for Soviet fighters to shoot down the plane. 269 people were killed.

USSR admitted shooting down the plane a few days later, saying it didn't know it was civilian.

[Solver]

Korean Airlines B747 (1983?) downed by Soviet fighter jets - the Soviets claimed it was on a spy mission, but it had lots of passengers on board. Probably confused with an US RC135 recon plane and therefore shot down. I´m sure there are a lot of conspiracy theories about this one out there

Ton of conspiracy theories like it being a US set up, etc.

[Pekka]

Imran, exactly. None of these bozos have seen The Exorcist..

[Chemical Ollie]

Originally posted by Ecthelion
please elaborate about all of those.

Both US and USSR had their trigger-happiness scandals in the 80's, by shooting down civilian aircraft that they interpreted as threats. International protests were severe in both cases.

USSR shot down a civilian jumbo-jet headed for Korea. I don't remember were it took off, but I assume US or Canada. I think it belonged to Korean Airlines. On it's way, it violated Sovjet airspace for some reason and a MiG splashed it. The victims were very international, also several Swedes.

A US navy ship splashed an Iranian airliner into the Persian Gulf with a SAM. I still recall TV images of dead bodies floating ass up in the water. Most of the victims were Iranians. The American ship captain excused the act with something like " They were outside the regular routes", as if that would justify such an act during peace time.