Egypt, Saudi airlines won't share passenger list data

By Robert Pear New York Times News Service Published October 18, 2001

WASHINGTON -- Federal officials said Wednesday that Saudi Arabia and Egypt have refused to cooperate with American efforts to identify terrorists and other criminals on aircraft flying to the United States.

Ninety-four airlines cooperate, but Saudi Arabian Airlines and Egypt Air are among a handful that do not electronically provide passenger lists when planes begin their flights to the U.S., the officials said.

The new customs commissioner, Robert Bonner, said airlines should be required to collect and provide names and other basic information about passengers traveling to America.

"It should be mandatory," Bonner said. "It should be a condition for getting landing rights in the United States."

Bush administration officials said they soon will propose a requirement that such passenger information be provided.

Airlines cooperating with federal law-enforcement authorities in the Advance Passenger Information System send data electronically to the United States when international flights take off for this country.

The Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service check the names against "watch lists."

A spokesman for the Saudi Embassy here said his country is not in any hurry to sign up for the system.

"At this time," the spokesman said, "hundreds of Saudi citizens are being detained and questioned with regard to the hijackings. A lot of them are innocent people. That number would probably quadruple if we shared advance information on air passengers with the United States."

Egyptian Ambassador M. Nabil Fahmy said he does not know why Egypt Air refuses to cooperate. "The Egyptian government is the ultimate owner of the airline but does not manage it," Fahmy said. "The airline makes its own decisions."

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2001