Richard Reid (shoe bomber)
Encyclopedia
Richard Colvin Reid also known as the Shoe Bomber, is a self-admitted member of al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...

 who pled guilty in 2002 in U.S. federal court
United States federal courts
The United States federal courts make up the judiciary branch of federal government of the United States organized under the United States Constitution and laws of the federal government.-Categories:...

 to eight criminal counts of terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...

 stemming from his attempt to destroy a commercial aircraft in-flight by detonating explosives hidden in his shoes. He is currently serving a life sentence without parole in a super maximum security
Supermax
Supermax is the name used to describe "control-unit" prisons, or units within prisons, which represent the most secure levels of custody in the prison systems of certain countries...

 prison in the United States.

Background

Reid was born a British citizen in Bromley
Bromley
Bromley is a large suburban town in south east London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Bromley. It was historically a market town, and prior to 1963 was in the county of Kent and formed the administrative centre of the Municipal Borough of Bromley...

, South London, to Leslie Hughes, who was of white English descent, and Colvin Robin Reid, whose father was a Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

n immigrant of African descent. When Reid was born, his father, a career criminal, was in jail for stealing a car. Reid left school at age 16, becoming a petty crook who was in and out of jail himself, the first time for assaulting an elderly woman. He began writing graffiti under the name Enrol with FRF crew, and ultimately accumulated more than 10 convictions for crimes against persons and property, serving sentences at the Feltham Young Offenders Institution  and at the Blundeston Prison
Blundeston (HM Prison)
HM Prison Blundeston is a Category C men's prison, located in the Village of Blundeston in Suffolk, England. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.-History:...

. According to his father, Reid became depressed and blamed racism for some of his problems. His father advised him to convert to Islam, telling him that Muslims were more egalitarian
Egalitarianism
Egalitarianism is a trend of thought that favors equality of some sort among moral agents, whether persons or animals. Emphasis is placed upon the fact that equality contains the idea of equity of quality...

 and they got better food in prison. The next time Reid was incarcerated (in 1995 for petty theft), he converted.

Upon his release from prison in 1996 he joined the Brixton Mosque
Brixton Mosque
The Brixton Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre is a mosque located in Gresham Road in the Brixton area of South London, England. The mosque has facilities for both men and women and space for 500 worshippers during prayer and is currently expanding to accommodate over 1000 worshippers...

. He later began attending the Finsbury Park Mosque in North London headed at that time by the anti-American cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri
Abu Hamza al-Masri
Abu Hamza al-Masri is an Egyptian Sunni activist known for his preaching of a violent and politicised interpretation of Islam, also known as militant Islamism or jihadism...

 and described as "the heart of the extremist Islamic culture" in Britain. By 1998 Reid was voicing extremist views, and may have fallen under the sway of "terrorist talent spotters and handlers" allied with Al Qaeda.

He spent 1999 and 2000 in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

 and trained at a terrorist camp in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

, according to several informants. He may also have attended an anti-American religious training center in Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...

, Pakistan as a follower of Mubarak Ali Gilani
Mubarak Ali Gilani
Mubarak Ali Shah Gilani is a Hanafi Sufi cleric from Pakistan and founder of the Muslims of the Americas organization...

. During this time he met Saajid Badat
Saajid Badat
Saajid Muhammad Badat is a British student, serving a 13-year prison term for planning to blow up an aircraft with a bomb hidden in his shoe...

.

After his return Reid set about obtaining duplicate passport
Passport
A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....

s from British government consulates abroad. Reid next resided at numerous places in Europe, communicating via an address in Peshawar
Peshawar
Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....

, Pakistan, a city known for its Al Qaeda connections. In July 2001, Reid flew to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

, passing through the El Al
El Al
El Al Israel Airlines Ltd , trading as El Al , is the flag carrier of Israel. It operates scheduled domestic and international services and cargo flights to Europe, North America, Africa and the Far East from its main base in Ben Gurion International Airport...

 airline's very tight security network, in what was possibly a test of his ability to pass through airport security screening anywhere. He then moved to Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

, living there from August 2001 through November 2001, working as a dishwasher.

Reid and Badat returned to Pakistan in November 2001, and reportedly traveled 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
Plastic explosive
Plastic explosive is a specialised form of explosive material. It is a soft and hand moldable solid material. Plastic explosives are properly known as putty explosives within the field of explosives engineering....

 and that the respective lengths of detonator cord had come from the same batch: indeed, the cut mark on Badat's cord matches exactly that on Reid's. The pair returned separately to Great Britain in early December 2001. Reid went to Belgium for 10 days before catching a train to Paris on December 16.

On December 21, 2001, Reid attempted to board a flight from Paris, France to Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...

, but his boarding was delayed because his disheveled physical appearance aroused the suspicions of the airline passenger screeners. Reid also did not answer all of their questions, and had not checked any luggage for the transatlantic flight. Additional screening by the French National Police
French National Police
The National Police , formerly the Sûreté Nationale, is one of two national police forces and the main civil law enforcement agency of France, with primary jurisdiction in cities and large towns. The other main agency is the military Gendarmerie, with primary jurisdiction in smaller towns and rural...

 resulted in Reid's being re-issued a ticket for a flight on the following day. He returned to the Paris airport on December 22, 2001, and he boarded American Airlines
American Airlines
American Airlines, Inc. is the world's fourth-largest airline in passenger miles transported and operating revenues. American Airlines is a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas adjacent to its largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport...

 Flight 63 from Paris to Miami, wearing his special shoes packed with plastic explosives in their hollowed-out bottoms.

Bombing attempt on American Airlines Flight 63

On December 22, 2001, passengers on Flight 63 from Paris, France to Miami, Florida complained of a smoke smell in the cabin shortly after a meal service. One flight attendant, Hermis Moutardier, thinking she smelled a burnt match, walked the aisles of the plane, trying to assess the source. A passenger pointed to Reid, who was sitting alone near a window and attempting to light a match. Moutardier warned him that smoking was not allowed on the airplane. Reid then promised to stop.

A few minutes later, Moutardier found Reid leaned over in his seat. Her attempts to get his attention failed. After asking "What are you doing?" Reid grabbed at her, revealing one shoe in his lap, a fuse which led into the shoe, and a lit match. She tried grabbing Reid twice, but he pushed her to the floor each time, and she yelled for help, and then ran to get water. When another flight attendant, Cristina Jones, arrived to try to subdue him, he fought her and bit her thumb and Moutardier threw water in his face. The 6 foot 4 inch (193 cm) tall, 200+ pound (90+ kg) Reid was next subdued by several passengers on the airliner, and then bound up using plastic handcuffs, seatbelt extensions, and headphone cords. A physician on board the airliner administered to Reid a tranquilizer
Tranquilizer
A tranquilizer, or tranquilliser , is a drug that induces tranquility in an individual.The term "tranquilizer" is imprecise, and is usually qualified, or replaced with more precise terms:...

 that he found in the emergency medical kit of the airliner. This flight was immediately diverted to the Logan International Airport
Logan International Airport
General Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport is located in the East Boston neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts . It covers , has six runways, and employs an estimated 16,000 people. It is the 19th busiest airport in the United States.Boston serves as a focus city for JetBlue Airways...

 in Boston, Massachusetts, the closest US airport.

The explosive apparently did not detonate due to the one-day delay in the take-off of Reid's flight. He had worn his shoes for more than one day, and the rainy weather, perhaps along with Reid's accumulated foot perspiration, caused the fuse to be too damp to ignite.

Legal proceedings and sentencing

Reid was immediately taken into custody after the incident. Two days later he was charged before a federal court
United States federal courts
The United States federal courts make up the judiciary branch of federal government of the United States organized under the United States Constitution and laws of the federal government.-Categories:...

 in Boston with "interfering with the performance of duties of flight crew members by assault or intimidation", a crime which by itself 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
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...

.) The judge ordered Reid to be held in jail without bail
Bail
Traditionally, bail is some form of property deposited or pledged to a court to persuade it to release a suspect from jail, on the understanding that the suspect will return for trial or forfeit the bail...

 pending trial due to the seriousness of the crimes he was charged with, and the perceived high risk that he would attempt to flee. At that time, forensic results indicated Reid's shoes contained 10 ounces (283g) of C-4
C-4 (explosive)
C4 or Composition C4 is a common variety of the plastic explosive known as Composition C.-Composition and manufacture:C4 is made up of explosives, plastic binder, plasticizer and usually marker or odorizing taggant chemicals such as 2,3-dimethyl-2,3-dinitrobutane to help detect the explosive and...

 plastic explosive
Plastic explosive
Plastic explosive is a specialised form of explosive material. It is a soft and hand moldable solid material. Plastic explosives are properly known as putty explosives within the field of explosives engineering....

s, enough to blow a hole in the plane and cause it to crash. During a preliminary hearing which was held on December 28, an FBI agent testified that forensic analysis had identified the chemicals as PETN
PETN
Pentaerythritol tetranitrate , also known as PENT, PENTA, TEN, corpent, penthrite , is the nitrate ester of pentaerythritol. Penta refers to the five carbon atoms of the neopentane skeleton.PETN is most well known as an explosive...

, the primary explosive, and TATP (triacetone triperoxide), a chemical needed to detonate the bomb.

The prosecutor proceeded to obtain a grand jury indictment and on January 16, 2002, Reid was charged with eight criminal counts related to his acts of terrorism, namely: attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, attempted homicide
Homicide
Homicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...

, placing an explosive device on an aircraft, attempted murder
Attempted murder
Attempted murder is a crime in England and Wales and Northern Ireland.-Today:In English criminal law, attempted murder is the crime of more than merely preparing to commit unlawful killing and at the same time having a specific intention to cause the death of human being under the Queen's Peace...

, interference with flight crew members and attendants, attempted destruction of an aircraft, using a destructive device during and in relation to a crime of violence and attempted wrecking of a mass transportation vehicle.

Reid pled guilty to all eight counts on October 4, 2002. On January 31, 2003, he was sentenced by Judge William Young
William G. Young
Judge William G. Young is a United States District Judge for the District of Massachusetts.He served as a captain in the United States Army from 1962 until 1964. He attended Harvard College and Harvard Law School...

 to life in prison with no possibility of parole with three life sentences to be served consecutively. Eight fines of $250,000 each were also imposed. During the sentencing hearing, Reid stated that he was an enemy of the United States and in league with Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...

. Though Reid proclaimed he was a soldier of God
God in Islam
In Islamic theology, God is the all-powerful and all-knowing creator, sustainer, ordainer, and judge of the universe. Islam puts a heavy emphasis on the conceptualization of God as strictly singular . God is unique and inherently One , all-merciful and omnipotent. According to the Islamic...

 (Allah
Allah
Allah is a word for God used in the context of Islam. In Arabic, the word means simply "God". It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and...

) under the command of Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...

, Judge Young declared: 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 judgement." He is serving his sentences in the Florence, Colorado, Federal prison
ADX Florence
The United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility is a supermax prison for men that is located in unincorporated Fremont County, Colorado, United States, south of Florence. It is unofficially known as ADX Florence, Florence ADMAX, Supermax, or The Alcatraz of the Rockies...

, the supermax
Supermax
Supermax is the name used to describe "control-unit" prisons, or units within prisons, which represent the most secure levels of custody in the prison systems of certain countries...

 penitentiary
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...

 located in Fremont County
Fremont County, Colorado
Fremont County is the thirteenth most populous of the 64 counties of the state of Colorado of the United States. The county is named for explorer and presidential candidate John C. Frémont. The county population was 46,824 at the 2010 census. The county seat is Cañon City. The Cañon City...

.

Conspirators

Although Reid had insisted that he had acted alone and had built the bombs himself, a palm print and a strand of hair not belonging to Reid were found in the bomb materials. Later on, a British-born man, Saajid Badat
Saajid Badat
Saajid Muhammad Badat is a British student, serving a 13-year prison term for planning to blow up an aircraft with a bomb hidden in his shoe...

 from Gloucester
Gloucester
Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....

, England, admitted that he had conspired with Richard Reid and a Belgian man, Nizar Trabelsi
Nizar Trabelsi
Nizar ben Abdelaziz Trabelsi is a convicted terrorist and a former Tunisian former professional football player in Germany. He was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment in 2003 for his association with Al-Qaida, and proposed involvement in militant attacks....

, in a plot to blow up two airliners bound for the United States more-or-less simultaneously, using their shoe bombs. Badat has said that he had been instructed to board a flight from Amsterdam to the United States. Badat never got on board the flight, and he withdrew from his part of the conspiracy. However, Badat did not warn criminal or aviation authorities about the dangers of Mr. 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 cord on Reid's bomb, and their explosive chemicals were essentially identical. Badat said that he had received the bomb-making materials from an Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

 in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

. Badat was sentenced to 13 years in prison by a British judge.

Effects on airline security

Concern about bombs possibly concealed in shoes led to the new requirement of all airline passengers departing from an airport in the United States having to pass through airport security in socks or bare feet while their shoes are scanned for bombs. However, scanners do not find PETN
PETN
Pentaerythritol tetranitrate , also known as PENT, PENTA, TEN, corpent, penthrite , is the nitrate ester of pentaerythritol. Penta refers to the five carbon atoms of the neopentane skeleton.PETN is most well known as an explosive...

  in shoes or strapped to a person. A chemical test is needed.

Alleged role in the September 11 attacks

The captured Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...

 terrorist conspirator, Zacarias Moussaoui
Zacarias Moussaoui
Zacarias Moussaoui is a French citizen who was convicted of conspiring to kill citizens of the US as part of the September 11 attacks...

, stated at his sentencing hearing in 2006 that Reid was a co-conspirator in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, and that Moussaoui and Reid had intended to hijack a fifth aircraft and crash it into the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

 in Washington, D.C., as part of the attacks that took place that day. However, Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...

 investigators and the federal prosecutors were skeptical of Moussaoui's claim that Reid was involved in the plot.

Prison restrictions

Reid filed a lawsuit against 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
Hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...

 and was force-fed and hydrated for several weeks. It was unknown whether Reid's hunger strike was related to his lawsuit. The Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...

, after consulting with its Counterterrorism Section, the prosecuting Federal District Attorney
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...

's office, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

, allowed these prison restrictions on Reid to expire during the summer of 2009, making his lawsuit moot.

See also

  • 7 July 2005 London bombings
    7 July 2005 London bombings
    The 7 July 2005 London bombings were a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks in the United Kingdom, targeting civilians using London's public transport system during the morning rush hour....

  • Islamic terrorism
  • Najibullah Zazi
    Najibullah Zazi
    Najibullah Zazi is an Afghan-American who was arrested in September 2009 as part of the 2009 U.S. Al Qaeda group accused of planning suicide bombings on the New York City subway system, and has pled guilty as have two other defendants. U.S...

  • Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab
    Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab
    Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab , popularly referred to as the "Underwear Bomber", is a suspected terrorist who attempted to detonate plastic explosives hidden in his underwear while on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253, en route from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan, on December 25,...

  • United Airlines Flight 663 incident
    United Airlines Flight 663 incident
    The United Airlines Flight 663 incident was a "minor international incident" in 2010 involving a Qatari diplomat on the leg of a United Airlines flight from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport to Denver International Airport...


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK