'Clean-aliases' sought
to foil airport security?

Intelligence officials hunting Islamist terrorists suspected of planning attacks on British Airways flights believe they may be carrying legitimate American, UK or other European passports to try to beat airport security.

Last week's cancellation of BA flights to Washington and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia was triggered by fears terrorists with legitimate "clean aliases" were planning the attacks, according to the London Guardian.

New evidence suggests jihadist groups are also trying to recruit 'well-educated' foreigners in the UK and Europe as suicide bombers.

Analysts believe al-Qaida and other terror networks have stepped up efforts to recruit U.S., UK and other foreign nationals who can more easily penetrate the heightened security in place since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

According to the paper, in one telephone intercept, an unidentified jihadist tells a colleague: ''We need foreigners. We have Albanians, Swiss and English... all that is important is that they are of a high cultural level ... businessmen, professors, engineers, doctors and teachers.''

Last week, more than 15 flights to the U.S. were intercepted, turned back or cancelled over fears of an imminent attack.

A U.S. intelligence warning, cross-checked and ''confirmed'' by the UK intelligence officials, led to the cancellation of British Airways flight 223 to the U.S. last Thursday and Friday and the cancellation of flights to Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

BA flight 223 finally left London's Heathrow airport bound for Washington yesterday after its cancellation two days in a row. The Boeing 747 left more than 3 hours late amid intense security and passengers were escorted onto the plane one at a time, reports the Guardian.

Heightened tension over airline security was underscored by the crash yesterday of an Egyptian charter jet flying from the resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh to Paris with the loss of all 148 lives on board.

Although terrorism was ruled out as a cause of the crash in favor of mechanical failure, yesterday's crash into the Red Sea shocked the airline industry at a time of unprecedented fears over safety.