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Analyst: 'Shoe Bomber' Probably Not Acting Alone
Monday, December 24, 2001
(24 8:48 AM ET)
By Ed Cropley
Reuters

Federal prosecutors on December 23, 2001 identified a 28-year-old man who allegedly tried to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight as Richard C. Reid, and the FBI laboratory said his shoes contained two explosive devices. (More)
Photo Credit: Brian Snyder -- Reuters.

LONDON -- Reuters
A suspected suicide bomber seized on a transatlantic flight with explosives packed in his training shoes was probably acting as part of a wider terrorist network, a security analyst said Monday.

Paul Wilkinson, a terrorism expert at Scotland's St. Andrews University said the make-shift device the man had on board the Paris to Miami flight Saturday was sufficiently sophisticated to suggest he was not acting alone.

“What is significant is the statement from the FBI (news - web sites) that these were working devices. He was not just some lunatic, but had a device in both shoes that would have gone off. That's a sign of some sophistication,” Wilkinson told Reuters.

“On the face of it, it seems unlikely that an individual working on his own would acquire such an unusual means of destruction,” Wilkinson said.

U.S. federal prosecutors identified the arrested man as Richard Reid, 28.
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2001 © Reuters, Ltd.

Dan