Posted on 12/29/2001 9:23:11 PM PST by classygreeneyedblonde
Telephone calls between Flight 63 shoe bomber Richard Reid and indicted 9/11 "20th hijacker" Zacarias Moussaoui were intercepted by British intelligence late last year, London's Guardian newspaper reports in Sunday's editions.
The calls, which were apparently tape recorded, "directly linked Bromley-born Reid to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network," but MI5 intelligence agents did not realize implication of the conversations until it was too late, the Guardian said.
The intelligence lapse was condemned Saturday night as a serious blunder by Oliver Letwin, a Tory Party opponent of Labour Party Home Secretary David Blunkett, who complained, "One would expect action to have been taken earlier. The Home Secretary will need to give a convincing explanation of the reasons for the delay."
Reid and Moussaoui were reportedly in telephone contact right up until the time Moussaoui left for Pakistan on Dec. 9, 2000 to attend an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan.
Abdul Haqq Baker, leader of the South London mosque where both terrorists worshipped, told NBC News on Thursday that he wasn't sure whether the two had any contact at his mosque.
But, said Baker, he was "certain" Reid and Moussaoui had met through an external study group they attended run by Muslim militants in the area.
Yes, what is it?
I have shoe bomb idea for American plane.
Sounds good.
I want to meet with you. I have great idea to blow up infidels!
Okay, that will be fine.
(hangs up) idiot! Allah, how long am I having to humor this moron?
I think you are exactly right. And this wasn't really the stumble fumble job some are making it out to be. R.Reid is probably just an incompetent idiot, but others may have been more competent. Lockerbie? TWA Flight 800, American Flight 587? Who knows if this hasn't been done before...what about the Aeroflot crash from Israel...the Ukrainians were adamant for the first few days that they did not shoot down the plane.
I hadn't seen this thread until today. I saw a report in the German newsmagazine Focus today about the phone calls between Reid and Moussaoui being intercepted, so I did a search before posting the Focus story. I see this thread was already up here.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.