You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Suspected Shoe Bomber Placed Under Suicide Watch

HeadlineDec 26, 2001

The man who, authorities say, hid explosives in his shoes and tried to ignite them during a transatlantic flight on Saturday has been placed under a suicide watch pending a psychological examination. Authorities said they were still trying to determine a motive for his actions and have not yet ruled out possible links to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network. While his identity remains unconfirmed, his passport bears the name [Richard] C. Reid. British authorities believe the passport is valid. Meanwhile, The Times of London reported today that Reid attended the same London mosque as Zacarias Moussaoui, the Frenchman charged with conspiracy in connection with the September 11th attacks. And a report yesterday in France’s La Provence newspaper, citing police and intelligence sources, said Reid had belonged to an Islamic movement called Tabligh, but left because he said it was not radical enough for him. A bond hearing is scheduled for Friday. If convicted of intimidation or assault of a flight crew, Reid could be sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top