http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/365/nation/_Shoe_bomb_suspect_tracked+.shtml

'Shoe bomb' suspect tracked

By Scott S. Greenberger, Globe Staff, 12/31/2001

Investigators in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East are digging up more details of Richard C. Reid's journey from a moderate London mosque to a botched suicide mission on American Airlines Flight 63, and much of it may link Reid to Al Qaeda and other terrorist networks.

Late last year, the British intelligence service MI5 monitored numerous phone calls between Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui, the man US authorities have charged as the 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 attacks, the British newspaper The Observer reported yesterday.

Reid and Moussaoui also worshiped at the same South London mosque.

Moussaoui, a Frenchman of Moroccan descent whose clumsy interest in flying jetliners alarmed American flight instructors and aroused the suspicions of US authorities, has been in federal custody since Aug. 17, when he was arrested in Minnesota on immigration violations.

A member of the Conservative Party criticized the Labor government of Prime Minister Tony Blair for not following up on Reid.

''One would expect action to have been taken earlier,'' Oliver Letwin told The Guardian.

The newspaper also reported that Reid was in Pakistan at the beginning of 2001, after repeatedly traveling between London and that country during the previous two years.

Meanwhile, Israeli investigators are reportedly trying to reconstruct Reid's activities during a 10-day visit to Israel and the Gaza Strip last July. In addition to possible meetings with Palestinian militants in Gaza, it is believed that Reid wanted to test airport and airline security systems in Israel.

Nachman Klieman, a spokesman for the Israeli airline El Al, said Reid raised suspicion during a routine security check. Airline security interrogated and searched him thoroughly before he was allowed to board an El Al flight on which he was seated next to an armed sky marshal.

The Jerusalem Post noted that the plastic explosive Reid is accused of trying to ignite on American Airlines Flight 63 is a type that has been used by Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups.

The Times of London reported that British authorities are still trying to confirm suspicions that while Reid was in Pakistan last August, he visited a Qaeda camp in neighboring Afghanistan.

Subsquent trips took Reid to Brussels, Amsterdam, and Paris, where he boarded Flight 63 to Miami. While in Amsterdam on Dec. 12, Reid reportedly purchased the sneakers he wore on the plane.

Although he had no known source of income, Reid paid about $1,500 for a round-trip ticket on Dec. 17. After being kept from his flight on Dec. 21 - the 13th anniversary of the Lockerbie bombing - he boarded the flight to Miami on Dec. 22.

-- Anonymous, December 31, 2001