Posted on 01/06/2002 4:36:38 PM PST by foreshadowed at waco
London -- As investigators gather evidence about possible links between alleged airline shoe-bomber Richard Reid and the al Qaeda terrorist organization, intelligence officials on both sides of the Atlantic are floating a disturbing theory: that Reid's bombing attempt may have been a "trial run" for future, simultaneous attacks against passenger jets to be carried out by supporters of Osama bin Laden.
U.S. and British intelligence officials believe that the British citizen on American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami on Dec. 22 was a "foot soldier" sent to check the destructive power of shoe bombs against civilian targets.
One senior British intelligence official said there are indications that "more than a few, but less than a dozen" individuals may be preparing similar attacks in the near future.
These officials cite similarities with a weapon developed by Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, who plotted a series of simultaneous attacks on U.S. airliners in the mid-1990s.
"There is a definite pattern here with Yousef's past attacks that we would be foolish to ignore," said one highly placed intelligence official. "They have tried this before, and they are trying it again."
During the flight, Reid allegedly tried to detonate explosives hidden in his shoes with a lighted match. Crew and passengers averted a disaster by jumping on the 28-year-old London-born suspect.
"MOTHER OF SATAN" BOMBS
Preliminary studies by the FBI indicate Reid's black suede basketball shoes contained between 8 and 10 ounces of the explosive triacetone triperoxide, or TATP -- called "The Mother of Satan" by Palestinian militants, because its inherent instability makes it dangerous to both the victims and bomb maker.
The TATP in Reid's shoes was "blended" with an explosive called PETN, or pentaerythritol tetranitrate, which can be ignited with a normal cigarette lighter. PETN is a key ingredient of Semtex, the Czech-made military explosive used to down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.
"These bombs are sophisticated devices," said the British intelligence official. "They would have been difficult and dangerous to produce. Reid could not have done this himself -- he would have trouble tying his own shoelaces. It seems we may have an expert bomb maker on the loose in Europe."
LINKS TO 20TH HIJACKER
Among the links being pursued by investigators are telephone conversations, known to British intelligence, between Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui, the so- called "20th hijacker" who was indicted on conspiracy charges in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks, and reports that the two worshiped at the same mosque in London. Moussaoui's attorney entered a plea of not guilty for his client in Virginia last week.
Investigators are also probing the origins of the money used by Reid, who has no visible means of support, as he traveled to seven different countries last year.
Among the cities Reid visited was Amsterdam. The Binnenlandse Veiligheids Dienst (BVD), the Dutch security service, is trying to reconstruct Reid's movements and to establish whether an al Qaeda cell there may be plotting attacks on passenger jets.
Reid has told FBI agents that he contacted Dutch arms dealers via the Internet and paid $1,800 for the explosives. But intelligence sources speculate that Reid obtained them from an al Qaeda explosives expert in Amsterdam, who adapted the shoes in preparation for Reid's attack.
FBI agents and British anti-terrorist officials, meanwhile, have concluded that the shoe-bomb plot originated with the ideas of Yousef, an early al Qaeda operative who suggested flying passenger jets into buildings.
'PROJECT BOJINKA' SIMILARITIES
After instigating the 1993 WTC bombing, which killed six people and injured more than 1,000, the British-educated extremist was on the run from the FBI for nearly two years before being captured. He is currently serving a life sentence plus 240 years.
While on the lam in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Far East, Yousef trained other bin Laden terrorists in the use of explosives and told them of a plan he code-named "Project Bojinka" -- "bojinka" means "explosion" in Serbo-Croat -- which used a form of shoe bomb.
Designed as a terrorist "spectacular" that would instantly kill thousands of people and eclipse every other terrorist atrocity in history, Yousef planned to blow up 11 U.S. passenger jets scheduled to fly simultaneously over the Far East in January 1995 by using tiny, undetectable bombs.
Yousef produced a stable, liquid form of nitroglycerine from an array of chemicals, including sulfuric acid and nitrobenzene, and fashioned them into devices undetectable by airport security devices, including X-ray machines. He converted a Casio digital watch into a timing switch, hid the liquid nitroglycerine in a contact lens case, with cotton wool as a stabilizer, and then used two 9-volt batteries to power light-bulb filaments to spark an explosion.
Yousef hid the bomb components in the heels of his shoes, knowing most airport security systems do not scan the soles of feet.
"The parallels are really chilling," said a senior FBI official, referring to the Reid case. The official added that security devices to detect explosives on passengers are still in the development stage.
Another similarity noted by investigators was the placement of the shoe bomb components. Having obtained Boeing blueprints, Yousef calculated the most devastating place to detonate his bombs was in a seat above the center fuel tank, adjacent to the wing. The bomb alone would not destroy the plane, but it would detonate the fuel, ripping the jet apart. Reid, perhaps following Yousef's example, chose a window seat close to the Boeing 767-300's fuel tank.
PHILIPPINES AIRLINE EXPLOSION
The "Bojinka" plot was aborted after chemicals Yousef was mixing in a Manila kitchen caught fire and he had to flee to Pakistan, leaving behind details of the plan for police to discover. But Yousef did stage his own trial run. In December 1994, he assembled a bomb on a Philippines Airline flight, then left it under a seat before deplaning the Boeing 747.
The resulting explosion on the next leg of the flight killed a Japanese passenger, injured five others and forced the pilot to make an emergency landing in Okinawa. Yousef would have needed only to increase slightly the size of the bomb to ensure the plane's destruction.
Some investigators are so concerned about how far the parallels between Reid and Yousef go that they have suggested "a more rigorous" interrogation of Reid, designed to elicit any information he has about a possible second "Bojinka" plot.
"There is significant concern about this guy," said the FBI official. "Does the failure of his mission mean his cell will now go on the run? Possibly. But in the past these groups have been very focused and do not easily turn from their target."
Simon Reeve, a London-based investigative journalist and contributor to The Chronicle, is the author of "The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin Laden and the Future of Terrorism."
I guess they have never played with mercury fulminate then... amateurs.
TWA800 ping....???
I think it's highly unlikely it would have been a trial run since it only would have alerted airline security and foiled future attempts if it failed. If he was successful, we would have never known what happened, as has been suggested in other cases. More than likely he had been trained in bomb making from readily available sources and this plot may have been on his own initiative following his buddy Moussaoui 's news situation.
If it were planned to do several others, they would have done then all at the same time, just as they did on 9/11.
Excellent article.
Remember American Flight 587 which broke apart 2 minutes after takeoff over Queens and Jamaica Bay Nov. 12?
TWA 800 and American 587 crashed soon after take off from John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Ken Hamblin has had some good discussions on this. He says his "Klingon tractor beam" theory has as much validity as the "turbulance" line from the NTSB. He also remarked that the pilot asked for more power, rather than less which is typical if there is a problem. So much has been going on in Europe with terrorists for years; but rather than learn - we seem to have adopted the same sorry procedures which garnered problems for them. WE would all be better off if we used correct terminology - STATISTICAL profiling rather than "racial" profiling - which gets people are upset and is incorrect as well. In WA a man's 6 year old son was frightened because he was the 5th person and therefore "checked out." Not a very efficient use of time I think. (Unless middle est terrorists are now going afer pre-school age suicide bombers...)
Despite the fact that Ashcroft has ignored some major terrorist information, he does seem to have picked up loads of the creatures and I think it's made a difference. Also, I regularly see titles on FR about the French arresting x men suspected of Al Quaeda ties, or some other country. Judging from Reid, Walker, Mousauwi (sorry about the spelling) and a few others, they are really down to the dregs and they started with recruits from the lower fourth of the bell curve IMO. That doesn't mean they aren't dangerous, just that we have a SLIGHT advantage because they are more likely to screw up their missions. We're extra lucky if they're caught in the act and the plan--made up by somebody with a functioning brain--is exposed.
I'll tell you what really freaks me out is the post on another thread (sorry I can't remember who posted it) that Khalil studied with Dr. Jolly. That combined with OBL's little accolade to high school grads succeeding in murder--which I took to be a trigger or call to arms for their raggedy back-up reserves made my hair stand up. Now we've got this goofy little twit in Tampa flying his little plane into a building. Most likely he's had absolutely no contact with any of these guys, but he could have. Apparently the owner of his flight school had made a plea after 9/ll that people NOT react badly to M.E. types taking flying lessons. Why would he do that unless he had some of those type students?
This last info comes from Mindbender. I laughed myself silly over his post. Right after the crash he was on posting about this owner's statements and saying this was no accident. He was right; it wasn't. What made me laugh was that he said, "The first rule of coincidences is that there are no coincidences." The same shill who shrieks "tin foil!" when we list a BUNCH of coincidences and speculate on what it might mean.
Anyway, I'm hoping that their suicide boys are now down to such screw-ups that they won't be able to do major harm. I'm more worried about those more experienced, non-suicidal agents who appear to remain under fed protection. I keep trying to come up with some scenario that would explain it, like we know they have nukes stashed and we'll never find them if we arrest the ones we think know about them... So far I haven't convinced myself.
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