Our friends the French...

Remember the big flap about the six Air France flights from Paris to the USA that were cancelled because some of the passengers were on US "watch lists" It turns out the French took our list of names, interviewed these people and then released them... (line to help apply clue-bat forms to your left) The Telegraph has a good writeup on the whole thing (satore filed 12/26/03): bq. American and French officials yesterday traded mutual recriminations over the failure to snare any terrorists in the security operation that grounded six Air France flights in and out of Los Angeles. bq. Bush administration officials expressed frustration that al-Qa'eda operatives might have escaped capture after word leaked, early this week, of American concerns about flights from France to the United States over the Christmas period. bq. One official said Washington had been hoping to keep the US-French negotiations confidential, adding that the hope was that "we would be able to lure some of these people in". It goes on - the French are not our allies...