Richard C Reid

Federal authorities Monday accused a 25-year-old student already in custody in Britain of conspiring with attempted "shoe bomber" Richard Reid to bring down a Paris-to-Miami flight, saying he may have had designs on destroying other aircraft and targets. The seven-count indictment, unsealed in Boston, accuses Sajid Mohammed Badat of attempted murder, trying to destroy an aircraft and aiding and abetting Reid.

Hoping to ensure that the "shoe bomber" ends his days in prison, federal prosecutors released new details Tuesday that show Richard Reid tried six times to light a bomb in his sneakers aboard a trans-Atlantic flight a year ago, and was so determined that he melted the end of the bomb fuse. Prosecutors also provided fresh evidence that Reid initially scouted airports and security measures for a planned bombing of an El Al Airlines flight because he was embittered with the nation of Israel.

In the summer before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, "shoe bomber" Richard Reid traveled extensively in the Middle East scouting airplanes, rail stations, buses and hotels as potential bombing targets for Afghan terrorists, according to government documents obtained Wednesday.

Shoe bomber Richard Reid did not consider himself "particularly brave" or take "pleasure" in trying to blow up an airplane over the North Atlantic, but instead acted out of a desire "to prevent the destruction of the religion that saved him," his defense lawyers said Tuesday. Reid is to be sentenced in federal court in Boston on Thursday, and faces a probable life sentence.

BOSTON -- Richard Reid was given three life sentences plus 110 additional years in prison Thursday as a federal judge here extolled the virtues of American freedom and justice, and the angry terrorist warned the United States that Allah "will give victory to his religion."

Statement of convicted "shoe bomber" Richard Reid at his sentencing hearing before U.S. District Judge William G. Young: * I start by praising Allah because life today is no good. I bear witness to this and he alone is right to be worshiped. And I bear witness that Muhammad ... is his last prophet and messenger who is sent to all of mankind for guidance .... Concerning what the court said? I admit, I admit my actions and I further state that I done them.

After he failed in his alleged first attempt to board a Paris-to-Miami flight and blow it out of the sky with explosives packed into his shoes, Richard C. Reid sent an urgent e-mail to his suspected terrorist handler, according to a Western diplomatic official familiar with the case. Reid was spending the night at an airport hotel here after missing the Dec. 21 flight because of a lengthy interrogation by police. What should he do?

A judge threw out one of nine charges against a man accused of trying to blow up a jetliner with explosives in his shoes, ruling Tuesday that an airplane is not a vehicle under a new anti-terrorism law. The charge, attempting to wreck a mass transportation vehicle, was filed under the USA Patriot Act, which was passed by Congress after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. U.S.

In the first U.S. conviction of an Al Qaeda terrorist, Richard Reid pleaded guilty Friday to charges that he tried to destroy an American Airlines transatlantic plane with explosives concealed in his shoes. "As far as the factual basis is concerned, I done this," Reid declared in U.S. District Court here. Pronouncing his allegiance to Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, the 29-year-old British citizen faced the judge and said, "I am an enemy of your country." U.S. Atty.

Calling Friday a "defining day" in the fight against terrorism, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft announced the arrests of four people on charges of conspiring to wage war against U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, as so-called American Talib John Walker Lindh was sentenced and shoe-bomber Richard Reid pleaded guilty to trying to blow up a transatlantic airliner. FBI agents arrested two men and one woman in a series of predawn raids in Portland, Ore., and another man near Detroit.