Two Suspected Terrorists Were Possibly Aboard Air France Flight 447
Remember last week we learned that a bomb threat had been called into Air France just days before Flight 447 vanished over the Atlantic? Well, now we've learned that two passenger names match those of Al Qaeda terror suspects.
Reports the Christian Science Monitor:
French news reports that Airbus 330-200's passenger manifest contained the names of two people with alleged ties to Al Qaeda has renewed the focus on terrorism as a possible key to the puzzle of what brought the plane down more than a week ago on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
Several clues have emerged that have prompted investigators to take another look at terrorism. First, a Spanish pilot flying in the same area reported he saw a "bright white flash" in the sky that evening. That could indicate a midair explosion of some kind. Air France also confirmed that it had received a bomb threat at its offices in Argentina four days before the crash. And now, there are the reports that the passengers included two people whose names match those on France's terrorist watch list.
Oh boy.
It should be noted that the article goes on to cite "terrorism experts" who say that terrorist watch lists are often unreliable, but you just know that's not going to stop conspiracy theories from spreading like wildfire all over the place even more than they already are.
But here's the thing we can't get past when it comes to this catastrophe being terror-related—Don't terror groups usually claim credit for these sorts of things? If it were terrorism, surely some group of lunatics would have stepped up by now and bragged about the shiny new feather in their cap, don't you think?