Airport Workers Stripped of Clearance

The Scotsman reported today:

More than 70 Muslim workers at France's main airport have been stripped of their security clearance, after an investigation claimed staff had visited terrorists' training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Investigators found that one employee was believed to be a friend of Richard Reid, the British shoe-bomber now serving a life sentence in Colorado, while another is believed to be close to a senior figure in an Algerian terrorist group with links to al-Qaeda.

One French baggage-handler allegedly spent three years in Yemen and attended a military training camp run by Islamic militants.

Ten workers who were stripped of security clearance - nine baggage-handlers of North African descent and a French security guard who converted to Islam and is married to a Moroccan woman - are suing the airport authorities on the grounds that they have been discriminated against because of their religion.

Planting workers at airports has long been regarded as a potential avenue for terrorism. If the accusations are true, it's disappointing that this was allowed to happen.