British Shoe Bomber Suspect 'Did Not Act Alone'

31/05/2001| IslamWeb

LONDON (Reuters) - A man suspected of trying to blow up a transatlantic airliner with explosives hidden in his shoes was a British convert to Islam who almost certainly did not act alone, the head of his London mosque said Wednesday.
The suspect, who was carrying a British passport in the name of Richard Reid when he boarded a Miami-bound flight in Paris, worshipped at the Brixton mosque in south London before falling in with Muslim extremists, its chairman Abdul Haqq Baker said.
Reid was forcibly subdued by flight attendants and fellow-passengers Saturday when he lit a match and appeared to be trying to set his shoes on fire.
Baker said he was convinced there were other militants behind him, using him as a guinea pig in a new terror operation.
The FBI also thinks Reid's ``shoe bombs'' were sophisticated enough to suggest he had an accomplice, The Boston Globe reported Tuesday. Establishing whether the suspect acted alone has been a main focus of the FBI investigation.
Baker said it was possible Reid knew Zacarias Moussaoui, a Frenchman of Moroccan descent who also spent time in Brixton.
Moussaoui faces conspiracy charges in the United States in connection with the September 11 suicide hijacking attacks on New York and Washington.
Reid attended court Monday in Boston, where the American Airlines Boeing 767 was diverted. He was ordered to reappear on Friday.
Doubts remain over Reid's true identity. Britain's Scotland Yard said Reid was believed to be British, but French officials have been quoted saying he is a Sri Lankan Muslim named Tariq Raja using a false British passport.
The London Times newspaper said Reid was born in 1973 in Bromley, southeast London, to an English mother and a Jamaican father.