Three consecutive life sentences plus 110 years without the possibility of parole
Richard Colvin Reid (born 12 August 1973), also known as the Shoe Bomber, is the perpetrator of the failed shoe bombing attempt on a transatlantic flight in 2001. Born to a father who was a career criminal, Reid converted to Islam as a young man in prison after years as a petty criminal. Later he became radicalized and went to Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he trained and became a member of al-Qaeda.
On 22 December 2001, Reid boarded American Airlines Flight 63 between Paris and Miami, wearing shoes packed with explosives, which he unsuccessfully tried to detonate. Passengers subdued him on the plane, which landed at Logan International Airport in Boston, the closest US airport. He was arrested, charged, and indicted. In 2002, Reid pleaded guilty in US federal court to eight federal criminal counts of terrorism, based on his attempt to destroy a commercial aircraft in flight. He was sentenced to three life terms plus 110 years in prison without parole and was transferred to ADX Florence, a super maximum security prison in Colorado.
Background
Reid was born in Bromley, London,[2] to Lesley Hughes, who was of native English descent, and Colvin Robin Reid, a man of mixed race whose father was a Jamaican immigrant.[3] When Reid was born, his father, a career criminal, was in prison for stealing a car.[3] Reid attended Thomas Tallis School in Kidbrooke,[4] leaving at age 16 and becoming a graffiti writer who was in and out of detention.[3] He began writing graffiti under the name "Enrol" as part of a gang,[5][6] and ultimately accumulated more than 10 convictions for crimes against persons and property.[7] He served sentences at Feltham Young Offenders Institution[8] and at Maidstone Prison.[9]
In 1992, while serving a three-year sentence for various street robberies, he converted to Islam.[3][10][11]
He spent 1999 and 2000 in Pakistan and trained at a terrorist camp in Afghanistan, according to several informants.[3] He may also have attended an anti-American religious training centre in Lahore as a follower of Mubarak Ali Gilani.[14]
After his return to Britain, Reid worked to obtain duplicate passports from British government consulates abroad. He lived and travelled in several places in Europe, communicating using an address in Peshawar, Pakistan, coincidentally where al Qaeda was formed in the late 1980s.[3]
Preparation for bombing
Reid and Saajid Badat, another British man preparing as a terrorist, returned to Pakistan in November 2001, and reportedly travelled overland to Afghanistan. They were given "shoe bombs", casual footwear adapted to be covertly smuggled onto aircraft before being used to destroy them. Later forensic analysis of both bombs showed that they contained the same plastic explosive and that the respective lengths of detonator cord had come from the same batch: the cut mark on Badat's cord exactly matched that on Reid's. The pair returned separately to the United Kingdom in early December 2001. Reid went to Belgium for 10 days before catching a train to Paris on 16 December.[7]
On 21 December 2001, Reid attempted to board a flight from Paris to Miami, Florida. His boarding was delayed because his dishevelled physical appearance aroused the suspicions of the airline passenger screeners. Once questioned by an ICTS agent, he was referred to the French National Police due to his seemingly evasive behavior and lack of baggage. Because his British passport was genuine and his name was not found on any lists of suspected terrorists, the police did not X-ray him or use bomb-sniffing dogs. The extended questioning resulted in Reid missing his flight, so he stayed overnight at a hotel near the airport while American Airlines was allowed to re-issue a ticket.[15][16] He returned to the airport the following day and boarded American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami, wearing his special shoes packed with plastic explosives in their hollowed-out bottoms.
The shoes Reid tried to detonate during the flight.
On 22 December 2001, a passenger on Flight 63 from Paris to Miami complained of the smell of smoke in the cabin shortly after a meal service. One flight attendant, Hermis Moutardier, thinking she smelled a burnt match, walked along the aisles of the plane, trying to find the source. She found Reid, who was sitting alone near a window, attempting to light a match. Moutardier warned him that smoking was not allowed onboard the aircraft. Reid promised to stop.[17]
A few minutes later, Moutardier found Reid leaned over in his seat. After she asked him what he was doing, Reid grabbed her, revealing one shoe in his lap, a fuse leading into the shoe, and a lit match. Several passengers worked together to subdue the 6foot 4inch (193cm) tall Reid who weighed 215pounds (97kg). They restrained him using plastic handcuffs, seatbelt extensions, leather waist belts and headphone cords. An off-duty doctor on board administered a tranquilizer to him, which he found in the emergency medical kit of the airliner.[17] The flight was immediately diverted to Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, the closest airport in the United States.[18]
The explosive apparently did not detonate due to the delay in the departure of Reid's flight. The rainy weather, along with Reid's feet perspiration, made the fuse too damp to ignite.[19]
Reid was immediately arrested at Logan International Airport after the incident. Two days later, he was charged before a federal court in Boston with "interfering with the performance of duties of flight crew members by assault or intimidation", a crime which carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Additional charges were added when he was formally indicted by a grand jury. The judge ordered Reid held in jail without bail, pending trial due to the gravity of the crimes and the perceived high risk that he would try to flee.[16] Officials at the time indicated that Reid's shoes contained 10ounces (283g) of explosive material characteristic of C-4, enough to blow a hole in the fuselage and cause the plane to crash.[16][20]
During a preliminary hearing on 28 December, an FBI agent testified that forensic analysis had identified the chemicals as PETN, the primary explosive, and TATP (triacetone triperoxide), a chemical needed to detonate the bomb with a fuse and match.[7][21][22] The prosecutor obtained a grand jury indictment and on 16 January 2002, Reid was charged with nine criminal counts related to terrorism, namely:
Attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction
Attempted homicide
Placing or transporting an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft or public mass transportation vehicle,
Attempted murder
Two counts of interference with flight crew members and attendants on an aircraft
Attempted destruction of an aircraft or public mass transportation vehicle
Using a destructive device during and in relation to a crime of violence
Attempted destruction of an aircraft
Attempted wrecking of a mass transportation vehicle[1]
The ninth charge, attempted wrecking of a mass transportation vehicle, was dismissed on 11 June 2002, because the Congressional definition of "vehicle" did not include aircraft.[23]
Reid pleaded guilty to the remaining eight counts on 4 October 2002.[24] On 31 January 2003, he was sentenced by Judge William Young to the maximum of three consecutive life sentences and 110 years with no possibility of parole.[25] Reid was also fined the maximum of $250,000 on each count, a total of $2 million.[25][26]
During the sentencing hearing, Reid said he was an enemy of the United States and in league with al-Qaeda.[27] When Reid said he was a soldier of God under the command of Osama bin Laden, Judge Young responded:[28][25]
You are not an enemy combatant, you are a terrorist... You are not a soldier in any army, you are a terrorist. To call you a soldier gives you far too much stature. [points to U.S. flag] You see that flag, Mr. Reid? That is the flag of the United States of America. That flag will be here long after you are forgotten.
Reid reportedly demonstrated a lack of remorse and a combative nature during the hearing, and said that "the flag will come down on the day of judgment".[25][26] He is serving his sentence at United States Penitentiary, Florence ADX, in Colorado, a supermax facility that holds the most dangerous prisoners in the federal system.[29]
Although Reid had insisted that he had acted alone and had built the bombs himself, forensic evidence included material from another person.[25] In 2005, a British man, Saajid Badat from Gloucester, admitted that he had conspired with Richard Reid and a Tunisian man (Nizar Trabelsi, who is in prison in Belgium), in a plot to blow up two airliners bound for the United States, using their shoe bombs.[30] Badat has said that he had been instructed to board a flight from Amsterdam to the United States. Badat never boarded and withdrew from his part of the conspiracy. Badat did not warn criminal or aviation authorities about Reid.
Badat confessed immediately after being arrested by the British police. The detonator cord in Badat's bomb was found by experts to be an exact match for the cord on Reid's bomb,[31] and their explosive chemicals were essentially identical.[30] He had received the bomb-making materials from someone in Afghanistan. Badat was sentenced to 13 years in prison by a British judge and has since been released.[31]
Changes in airline security procedures
As a result of these events, some airlines encouraged passengers departing from an airport in the United States to pass through airport security in socks or bare feet while their shoes are scanned for bombs.[32] In 2006, the TSA started requiring all passengers to remove their shoes for screening.[33] Scanners do not find PETN in shoes or strapped to a person. A chemical test is needed.[34] However, even if the X-ray scanners cannot detect all explosives, it is an effective way to see if the shoe has been altered to hold a bomb.[35]
In 2011, the rules were relaxed to allow children 12 and younger and adults 75 and older to keep their shoes on during security screenings.[36]
Alleged role in 9/11
Captured al-Qaeda terrorist conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui stated at his sentencing hearing in 2006 that Reid was a co-conspirator in the September 11 attacks on the United States, and that Moussaoui and Reid had intended to hijack a fifth aircraft and crash it into the White House in Washington, D.C. as part of the attacks that took place that day. Department of Justice investigators and the federal prosecutors were skeptical of Moussaoui's claim that Reid was involved in the plot.[37]
Prison restrictions
Reid filed a lawsuit challenging the restrictions placed on him in prison which controlled his communications with lawyers and other non-prisoners, limited his access to Muslim clerics, and prevented him from joining in group prayer at the prison. In 2009, Reid went on a hunger strike and was force-fed and hydrated for several weeks. It was unknown whether Reid's hunger strike was related to his lawsuit.[38] The Department of Justice, after consulting with its counter-terrorism section, the prosecuting US attorney's office, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, allowed Reid's prison restrictions to expire in 2009, rather than renewing them, making his lawsuit moot.[39]
The USS Cole bombing was a suicide attack by al-Qaeda against USS Cole, a guided missile destroyer of the United States Navy, on 12 October 2000, while it was being refueled in Yemen's Aden harbor.
Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), also known as PENT, pentyl, PENTA, TEN, corpent, or penthrite, is an explosive material. It is the nitrate ester of pentaerythritol, and is structurally very similar to nitroglycerin. Penta refers to the five carbon atoms of the neopentane skeleton. PETN is a very powerful explosive material with a relative effectiveness factor of 1.66. When mixed with a plasticizer, PETN forms a plastic explosive. Along with RDX it is the main ingredient of Semtex.
Ahmed Ressam, also known as the "Millennium Bomber", is an Algerian al-Qaeda member who lived for a time in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He received extensive terrorist training in Afghanistan.
On December 22, 2001, a failed shoe bombing attempt occurred aboard American Airlines Flight 63. The aircraft, a Boeing 767-300ER with 197 passengers and crew aboard, was flying from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France, to Miami International Airport in the U.S. state of Florida.
Ramzi Ahmed Yousef is a convicted terrorist who was one of the main perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the bombing of Philippine Airlines Flight 434; he was also a co-conspirator in the Bojinka plot. In 1995, he was arrested by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and U.S. Diplomatic Security Service at a guest house in Islamabad, Pakistan, while trying to set a bomb in a doll, then extradited to the United States.
The Bojinka plot was a large-scale, three-phase terrorist attack planned by Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed for January 1995. They planned to assassinate Pope John Paul II; blow up 11 airliners in flight from Asia to the United States, with the goal of killing approximately 4,000 passengers and shutting down air travel around the world; and crash a plane into the headquarters of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Langley, Virginia.
Philippine Airlines Flight 434, sometimes referred to as PAL434 or PR434, was a scheduled flight on December 11, 1994, from Manila to Tokyo with a quick stopover in Cebu on a Boeing 747-283B that was seriously damaged by a bomb, killing one passenger and damaging vital control systems, although the plane was in a repairable state. The incident was a test run of the unsuccessful Bojinka terrorist attacks. The Boeing 747 was flying the second leg of a route from Mactan–Cebu International Airport in Cebu, Philippines to Narita International Airport, in Tokyo, Japan. After the bomb detonated, 58-year-old veteran pilot Captain Eduardo "Ed" Reyes was able to land the aircraft, saving it and the remaining passengers and crew.
A series of Islamist terrorist attacks linked to al-Qaeda were planned to occur on or near January 1, 2000, in the context of millennium celebrations, including bombing plots against four tourist sites in Jordan, the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), USS The Sullivans, and the hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814.
Abderraouf bin Habib bin Yousef Jdey is a Canadian citizen, who was found swearing to die as a shaheed (martyr) on a series of videotapes found in the rubble of Mohammed Atef's house in Afghanistan in 2002.
The 20th hijacker is a possible additional terrorist in the September 11 attacks of 2001 who, for unknown reasons, was unable to participate. The 20th hijacker, though not present during the actual attacks, is said to have been deeply involved in the preparations. There were many variations of the 9/11 plot, with the number of terrorists fluctuating with available resources and changing circumstances. In the end, there were 19 hijackers: three of the planes were taken over by five members each and the fourth was hijacked by four people. The latter plane, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, due to the resistance from passengers before it could reach its target in Washington, D.C.
Saajid Muhammad Badat is a British terrorist who was sentenced to a 13-year prison term for planning to blow up an aircraft with a bomb hidden in his shoe.
Zacarias Moussaoui is a French member of al-Qaeda who pleaded guilty in a U.S. federal court to conspiring to kill citizens of the United States as part of the 9/11 attacks. He is serving life imprisonment without the possibility of parole at the Federal ADX Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado. Moussaoui is the only person ever convicted in a U.S. court in connection with the September 11 attacks.
The following is a list of attacks which have been carried out by Al-Qaeda.
This page lists trials related to the September 11 attacks.
Ibrahim Hassan Tali al-Asiri was a citizen of Saudi Arabia suspected of being chief bomb-maker of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. He was reported to have been responsible for making the bombs used by his brother Abdullah al-Asiri in his suicide bombing, the 2009 Christmas Day bomb plot, the 2010 cargo plane bomb plot, and the May 8th 2012 Terror Plot.
The attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 occurred on December 25, 2009, aboard an Airbus A330 as it prepared to land at Detroit Metropolitan Airport following a transatlantic flight from Amsterdam. Attributed to the terrorist organization al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the act was undertaken by 23-year-old Nigerian national Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab using chemical explosives sewn to his underwear. These circumstances, including the date, led to Abdulmutallab being commonly nicknamed either the "Underwear bomber" or "Christmas Day bomber" by American media outlets. It also could have been the worst plane crash in the history of Michigan beating out Northwest Airlines Flight 255.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab popularly referred to as the "Underwear Bomber" or "Christmas Bomber", is a Nigerian terrorist who, at the age of 23, attempted to detonate plastic explosives hidden in his underwear while on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253, en route from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan, US on 25 December 2009.
The Brixton Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre is a mosque located in Gresham Road in the Brixton area of South London. It is managed by Black British converts and is known for its history of controversy.
Failed terrorism plots are terrorist plots that have either been foiled, uncovered by authorities or failed through mistakes.
On October 29, 2010, two packages, each containing a bomb consisting of 300 to 400 grams (11–14 oz) of plastic explosives and a detonating mechanism, were found on separate cargo planes. The bombs were discovered as a result of intelligence received from Saudi Arabia's security chief. They were in transport from Yemen to the United States and were discovered at stopover locations: one at East Midlands Airport in the UK and one in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
↑ "Profile". NNDB. Archived from the original on 12 February 2010. In an email sent to his mother, Reid stated he was part of the war "against unbelief" and was sacrificing his life to "help remove the oppressive American forces from the Muslim lands"
↑ Reid reportedly followed a fundamentalist form of Islam known as Salafi, which seeks a return to the roots of the religion and is the predominant form of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia"Wahhabism: A deadly scripture". The Independent. London. 1 November 2007. Archived from the original on 28 July 2011. Retrieved 31 December 2009.
↑ Thomas, Pierre; Pinto, Barbara; Stark, Lisa; Wright, David (24 December 2001). "Shoe Bomb Suspect Had Enough Explosives to Bring Down Plane". ABC News. Retrieved 9 December 2014. Officials at Logan Airport described the substance as consistent with the military plastic explosive C-4.
↑ Candiotti, Susan (27 December 2001). "Official: Plastic explosive 'very sophisticated'". CNN. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 9 December 2014. Richard Reid hid 10 ounces of PETN-based material, a version of the plastic explosive C4 that is very sensitive to heat and friction.
↑ Reid's membership in al-Qaeda was corroborated later in 2003 by informant Mohammed Mansour Jabarah during an interrogation at an American military base. Jabarah said Reid was a member of al-Qaeda who had trained in Afghanistan under the direction of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Ressa, Maria (6 December 2003). "Sources:Reid is al Qaeda operative". CNN. Archived from the original on 4 January 2007. Retrieved 31 December 2009.
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