Free Republic

Account on Kabul PC parallels moves of alleged shoe-bomber By Alan Cullison and Andrew Higgins THE WALL STREET JOURNAL KABUL, Afghanistan, Jan. 16 — Less than a month before hijacked airplanes slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, al Qaeda chieftains received a report spelling out “exceptionally good opportunities” for terrorism in Israel and Egypt. Among the suggested targets: tall buildings and planes. THE REPORT, found on a computer used by Osama bin Laden’s lieutenants in the Afghan capital, details a target-scouting mission by an operative who flew from Amsterdam to Tel Aviv on El Al with a ...

Article examines the incredible explanations put forward by the federal government in the crash of Flight 587, the eyewitness testimony of 24 people who say they saw the plane on fire before its tail fell off, and compares Flight 587 to related crashes.

AMSTERDAM - Intelligence services have got strong leads that Richard Reid, the man that tried to blow up a plane with a shoe-bomb, was a testperson from an organization that is plotting much larger terrorist attacks. His exploding sneakers were handed to Reid in Amsterdam. The British terrorist-expert Simon Reeve says he was informed by sources within the American and British secret services. Reece wrote the authorative book "The new jackals", about the attacks on the New York WTC in 1993 and the plans Osama bin Ladens' Al-Qaida network had to do suicide-attacks on American airliners in 1995. "The intelligence ...

The three men that were arrested in Rotterdam for the suspected planning of a terrorist attack, had videotapes with speeches from Osama bin Laden at their home. This was revealed bij DA-officer P. Notenboom today at the court in Rotterdam. Police detained the three men in Rotterdam two days after the 9/11 attacks. In their home the police discovered many false passports, drivers licences and pay-cards. According to the Justice Departement the three men planned an attack against an Amrican target in Europe together with the Tunesian ex-soccerplayer Nizar Trabelsi. Trabelsi, who was arrested at the same time in Belgium, ...

INTELLIGENCE services are investigating claims that Richard Reid, the alleged shoe bomber, was recruited by al-Qaeda’s chief talent-spotter in Europe while he was sleeping rough at a London mosque. Among the group of young Muslims staying at the Finsbury Park Mosque at the same time was a former professional footballer, Nizar Trabelsi, who was allegedly chosen to be al-Qaeda’s first suicide bomber in Europe. The Tunisian-born Mr Trabelsi was meant to blow himself up inside the US Embassy in Paris that would signal the start of a series of attacks on European targets. A British Muslim has told The Times ...

<p>LONDON -- The bomb that terrorist suspect Richard Reid hid in his shoe, in what the FBI calls a foiled attempt to blow up a U.S.-bound American Airlines flight last month, suggests a knowledge of explosives that probably goes far beyond his abilities, European experts say. They say the device is reminiscent of one commonly used by Palestinian suicide bombers, but more sophisticated.</p>

<p>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.</p>

LONDON (AP) The man accused of trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with explosives hidden in his sneakers was seen in London with suspected members of the al-Qaida terrorist network, a British newspaper reported Saturday. A worshipper at London's Finsbury Park mosque, Rashid Hussain, was quoted by The Times as saying he saw Richard C. Reid at the mosque in 1998 with Djamel Beghal and Nizar Trabelsi. Beghal is a French-Algerian who French investigators say revealed a suicide plot to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Paris and apparently told Dubai investigators he had visited Osama bin Laden's home. ...

<p>The British man accused of trying to detonate explosives in his sneakers aboard a Paris-to-Miami jetliner had several telephone conversations with Zacarias Moussaoui, the accused co-conspirator in the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, federal authorities said yesterday.</p>

Thursday January 3 9:06 AM ET Paper: Shoe-Bomb Suspect, Moussaoui Spoke by Phone WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Suspected shoe-bomber Richard Reid spoke by phone with Zacarias Moussaoui, the first man charged for the Sept. 11 hijack plot, The Washington Times reported Thursday. Citing U.S. law enforcement authorities, the paper said Reid, accused of trying to destroy a transatlantic airliner by detonating explosives in his shoes, had several telephone conversations with Moussaoui toward the end of 2000. The phone calls are the second link between the two men, who also worshiped at the same London mosque. British intelligence agents intercepted the conversations, ...

Don't hate my son. I have spent 18 years behind bars. Every time he needed me I was locked up. THE father of shoe bomber Richard Reid yesterday begged the British people: "Please don't hate my son." Robin Reid: "My fault" Robin Reid blamed family break-up and his jailbird past for turning his son into a terrorist willing to die as a Muslim fanatic. Mr Reid, 51, said: "Look at the terrible childhood he had and the broken home he came from "Look at the father he had. I have spent 18 years in total behind bars. That can't have ...

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 ...

From tearaway to terrorist - The story of Richard Reid (Filed: 30/12/2001) RICHARD REID was born in south London and now languishes in a Boston cell. This special Telegraph investigation traces the troubled life of a murderous misfit. Olga Craig reports. As she walked briskly down the narrow aisle, the flight attendant scanned the rows of seats. After 90 minutes in the air and a bout of turbulence, the pilot had extinguished the "fasten seatbelts" signs, her colleagues were stacking drinks trolleys in the galley behind her and some of the passengers were massaging aching limbs as they tried to ...

Jean-Claude Joly was sitting a few rows back from Richard C. Reid on Flight 63 from Paris to Miami on Dec. 22 when the plane erupted in confusion after Mr. Reid tried to light a fuse coming out of his sneaker. Mr. Joly grabbed his camera and captured the scene in these photos, purchased by The New York Times after they were made available on Friday. In this first picture, about eight passengers used belts and earphone wires to tie up Mr. Reid. They would later say they thought he was drunk. A flight attendant searched the small knapsack ...

Israelis considered shoe-bombing suspect top security risk Shoe-bombing suspect Richard Reid underwent a body check and had to remove his shoes for screening before boarding an El Al plane in the summer, according to the airline. Even after no explosives were found, the airline considered Reid a top security risk and seated him next to an armed sky marshal far from the cockpit, an Israeli source says. A senior El Al security official said Reid flew to Israel last July to try to find weaknesses in the airline's vaunted security system, in preparation for a possible attack on a ...

EINDHOVEN - The man arrested last week that was suspected of having aided the murder on Ahmed Shah Masud, will probebly be taken to Belgium on monday or wednesday. The suspect choose for a shortened procedure. The arrest of the suspect has only been announced last wednesday. Police detained him at the request of the Belgian authorities. The Belgians are investigating the origin of the fake Belgian passports that were used by the two killers of Masud. The commandant of the Northern Alliance was killed on 9 september by two Moroccans that were pretending to be journalists. Supposedly the Taliban ...

BOSTON (ANP) - The British citizen Richard Reid, that wanted to detonate explosive powder hidden in his shoe during a flight from Paris to Miami, will not be allowed to be set free on bail. This was decided by the federal judge on friday in Boston. The 28 year old Reid attempted the bombing on 22 december in a plane of American Airlines. He was tied down after a struggle and handed over to the police after an emergency landing. According French investigators the explosives were not powerful enough to have endangered the plane. The DA in Boston says that ...

MI5 has found disturbing new evidence in Afghanistan of how up to 40 Britons were recently given terrorist training at al-Qaeda camps and who it fears have been sent home to carry out new atrocities. Details of their names and passport numbers have been given to police so they can urgently trace the men who, like Richard Reid before his arrest in America, may be sheltering in safe houses in Britain and major European cities. Their documents, discovered by US and British agents in recent days in Kandahar and Jalalabad, appear to prove that far more British-born Muslims volunteered to ...

FBI agents are investigating the possibility that the shoe bomber Richard Reid was trying to mark the anniversary of the Lockerbie bombing with a suicide attack. He first tried to board a Paris to Miami flight on Friday, Dec 21, the 13th anniversary of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people in 1988. But it was not until 24 hours later that he managed to get a flight on the American Airlines service carrying 197 people. The 28-year-old Briton tried to bring down the airliner with a highly volatile explosive that could have gone off at ...

JERUSALEM -- Shoe-bombing suspect Richard C. Reid underwent a rigorous body check and had to remove his shoes for special screening before boarding an El Al plane this past summer, Israel's national carrier said Friday. Even after no explosives were found, the airline considered Reid a top security risk and seated him next to an armed sky marshal in the second to last row, far from the cockpit, said an Israeli source. A senior El Al security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Reid apparently flew to Israel last July to try to find weaknesses in the airline's ...