yahoo.com Saturday December 23

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Man Caught With Explosives on Plane

BOSTON (AP) - American Airlines plane en route from Paris to Miami was diverted to Boston on Saturday after a passenger tried to ignite what's being called an ``improvised explosive,'' according to Thomas Kinton, an official with the Massachusetts Port Authority.

A flight attendant was drawn to the passenger by the smell of sulfur from a lighted match, Kinton said. The attendant then challenged the man as to what he was doing.

The man was apparently trying to ignite his shoes, which Kinton said contained ``improvised explosives'' capable of doing damage.

Broadcast reports said other passengers and crew on the American Airlines flight subdued the passenger, who became violent when confronted.

Kinton said the intervention ``appeared to have prevented something very serious from occurring.''

-- (lars@indy.net), December 22, 2001

Answers

Man has not yet been identified other than he had a British passport

-- (lars@indy.net), December 22, 2001.

Yeah, I heard those new Gucci C-4 shoes are the latest rage among suicidal ragheads. More comfortable than a dynamite vest, and much easier to get through security. The only disadvantage is that you may not be killed if your body is thrown away from the blast, in which case you might be forced to go through the rest of your life as a legless torso.

I just hope I can finish my Christmas travelling before they start making us take our shoes off and run them through the x-ray machine. The lines are going to take twice as long when they do that.

-- (what's next @ body cavity. check?), December 22, 2001.

Just think, if the dumbass had brought a Bic lighter instead of matches we would be talking about another 185 people dead.

-- (too close @ for. comfort), December 22, 2001.

Lighters were already on the banned list.

-- helen (taking@the.bus), December 22, 2001.

Now matches will be on the banned list as well. Hopefully none of the future terrorists learned how to start a fire by rubbing two sticks together.

-- bogsworth (running@on.8cylinders), December 23, 2001.

-- Mr. Bomb Shoes (sitting @ in. back), December 23, 2001.

"Ethnic profiling", anyone?

-- (kill yankees@jihad.com), December 23, 2001.

I hear that they are now requiring shoes on the conveyor/xray belt. No lie.

-- (cin@cin.cin), December 23, 2001.

That won't stop them. They will hide the C-4 up their butthole, then light it when they go to the bathroom. Very soon each passenger will be required to undergo a strip search and body cavity check.

-- (ban@all.ragheads), December 23, 2001.

Sunday December 23 8:53 PM ET

FBI Finds Explosives in Bomb Suspect's Shoes

By Leslie Gevirtz

BOSTON (Reuters) - Federal prosecutors on Sunday said initial FBI (news - web sites) tests showed the man who allegedly tried to blow up a transatlantic flight carried two explosive devices in his shoes, and authorities sought to determine if he was connected to a wider plot.

Prosecutors identified the man as Richard Reid, 28, and said he would appear in Boston federal court on Monday. He was charged with interfering with a flight crew after he allegedly tried to set his shoes aflame and ignite the explosives as he sat in the coach section of a Boeing 767 on Saturday.

The plane, American Airlines Flight 63, from Paris to Miami, was diverted to Boston after some of the 183 passengers and 12 crew members subdued Reid.

A flight attendant spotted wires protruding from Reid's sneakers, and the FBI said a preliminary analysis found they contained two functional improvised explosive devices.

U.S. officials did not immediately identify his nationality, but said Reid was carrying a British passport issued in Brussels, Belgium, on Dec. 7. British police said on Sunday they believed the suspect was a Briton. But some believed his passport was fake, and French radio said the man had told the FBI he was Sri Lankan.

Sen. Richard Shelby (news - bio - voting record) of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, said after being briefed by the FBI that it was not yet clear if the man had acted alone.

``It would be my judgement from what I've observed that this man was trying to blow himself up and blow the plane up and we are very fortunate it didn't happen,'' Shelby told the CBS program ``Face the Nation.''

``Is it part of a widespread deal or was this guy acting alone, we don't know yet.''

Shelby said there was still a long way to go in tightening air security, despite the extra measures taken since suicide hijackers seized four planes on Sept. 11. About 3,100 people were killed when two of the planes were rammed into the World Trade Center and one smashed into the Pentagon (news - web sites).

STRUGGLE FOR SNEAKER

Court papers filed on Sunday said flight attendant Hermis Moutardier, who smelled what she thought was a burned match, confronted Reid.

``He put a match in his mouth. She then went to alert the captain over the intercom system,'' according to the affidavit by FBI special agent Margaret Cronin.

When the flight attendant returned, Reid lit a match and attempted ``to set fire to the inner tongue of his sneaker. She then noticed a wire protruding from that sneaker.

``She grabbed at the sneaker and Reid shoved her into the bulkhead. She made a second attempt to grab the shoe, and he pushed her to the floor. Ms. Moutardier then yelled for help and ran to get water,'' Cronin's affidavit said.

A second flight attendant, Cristina Jones, then struggled with Reid, who was described as being 6 feet 4 inches tall and 200 pounds. ``He bit Ms. Jones on the thumb and Ms. Moutardier threw water in his face,'' the affidavit said.

Passengers, including professional basketball player Kwame James, then helped subdue Reid.

James, who is 6 foot 8 inches tall and weighs about 250 pounds, described Reid's English as ``perfect'' and said the suspect ``was unbelievably strong. You know, he at least fought off three or four of us.''

Eventually, Reid was tied to his seat in the 29th row and kept under watch until the plane, escorted by two U.S. Air Force F-15 fighter planes, landed at Logan Airport on Saturday at 12:50 p.m.

British and French police launched investigations into how the suspect slipped through the security nets of the two countries. U.S. news reports said the man had tried to board the same scheduled flight from Paris on Friday but had been turned away for some unknown reason. French police said they could not confirm those reports.

At the American Airlines terminal at Logan Airport on Sunday, all passengers had to remove their shoes and have them X-rayed before they were admitted to the gate area.

The Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites) issued a new security advisory to U.S. airlines on Sunday. An agency official would not detail the action other than to say it provided additional guidance to carriers based on specific details of Saturday's incident.

An FAA advisory earlier this month, among other things, cautioned airlines to watch carefully for anyone who might try to hide weapons or explosives in shoes.

If convicted, Reid faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

-- (latest@news.com), December 24, 2001.

"He was charged with interfering with a flight crew"

They know that he had explosives, and that's the best charge they can come up with?

How about attempted murder of 185 people?

-- (duuuh@duuuh.duuuh), December 24, 2001.

Looks like one of the passengers had a pretty good left hook. Somebody should get a medal for this.

-- (just an@anonymous.one), December 24, 2001.

When are we going to start pulling these dirty filthy people over to the side and frisk them GOOD? Racial profiling is the only way to go! To hell with the red diapered doper baby Clinton lovers with their liberal ethnic views that will get everybody killed. Any browned skinned wild eyed rat boy with even a hint of a beard should get the works. The next thing will be a dirty bomb in front of the NYSE or downtown Chicago. I hope Janet Reno shakes herself clear to the nursing home.

-- Boswell (fundown@thefarm.net), December 24, 2001.

Life mimics art: Exploding shoes.

-- (Roland@hatemail.com), December 24, 2001.

hey hey HEY Boswell....take it easy on the rat-slurs dude.

Rats are cool. : )

-- (cin@cin.cin), December 24, 2001.

Cin, lay off the ratatouille.

-- (nemesis@awol.com), December 25, 2001.

A few more details emerge on the s hoe bomber.

-- (Roland@hatemail.com), December 25, 2001.

curiouser and curiouser

-- (feets@do your.stuff), December 26, 2001.

FYI - just finished a trip across country through 3 major cities. They didn't make me take my shoes off, and my matches were not confiscated.

-- (security@no.problem), December 27, 2001.

"Looks like one of the passengers had a pretty good left hook."

It was Kwame James the basketball player, and if you take another look at Abdul you will see that he was hit with a right hook, not a left.

-- (think@about.it), December 27, 2001.

Just think if we had succeeded in exploding that plane over the ocean. You infidels would have spent billions to search the ocean floor for pieces of the wreck. The useful idiots would have spent years creating elaborate conspiracy plots about ABM missiles, Enron, CIA etc. We would have fed all these conspiracy theories and financially supported the sleazy web sites that create them.

More to come, infidels!

-- (Abdullah Abdullah @ Mecca.micturating), December 27, 2001.