Passenger Likely Not Al Qaeda, U.S. Says

A passenger arrested after allegedly trying to blow up a transatlantic jetliner was identified Sunday as a British citizen who had hidden “two functional improvised explosive devices” in his shoes. Initial indications were that he had acted alone and was not part of a terrorist conspiracy, U.S. authorities added.

Richard C. Reid, 28, was charged in a federal criminal complaint with interfering with flight crew members by assault or intimidation. He is scheduled to make an appearance in U.S. District Court here today--two days after allegedly attempting to detonate the explosives aboard an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami.

Reid’s shoes, described as a pair of high-top sneakers, were flown to the FBI’s crime lab in Washington, where initial tests Sunday revealed the presence of the explosives. FBI officials would not characterize what kind of explosives they were or whether Reid had smuggled a high-grade compound known as C4 aboard the plane, as Massachusetts authorities suggested a day earlier. An FBI spokesman stressed that more tests were underway to determine what Reid was trying to ignite when he was subdued by flight attendants and passengers.

Meanwhile, details of that desperate struggle aboard the crowded plane were disclosed in an affidavit filed by an FBI agent in support of the complaint. French authorities confirmed that Reid acted so suspiciously when attempting to board a Miami-bound flight Friday that they had detained him at Charles de Gaulle Airport and questioned him at length--only to let him board Flight 63 the next day.

That flight, with 183 passengers and 14 crew members on board, was diverted to Boston and made an emergency landing at 12:50 p.m. Saturday, escorted by two F-15 fighter jets. Reid remained in federal custody amid heavy security Sunday, and the passengers and crew flew onto Miami after undergoing extensive questioning by the FBI.

The confrontation between Reid and the crew began about 90 minutes after takeoff when flight attendant Hermis Moutardier smelled what she thought was a burnt match; she approached Reid, who put the match in his mouth, the affidavit said.

After alerting the captain, Moutardier returned to find Reid “attempting to set fire to the inner tongue of his sneaker. She then noticed a wire protruding from that sneaker,” said the affidavit, which was filed by Special Agent Margaret Cronin and was based on interviews with crew and passengers.

Moutardier “grabbed at” the sneaker and Reid--who is 6-foot-4 and weighs more than 200 pounds--shoved her into a bulkhead, witnesses told the FBI. Moutardier then tried again to grab the shoe, and Reid pushed her to the floor of the plane, prompting several passengers to jump on him in an effort to subdue him, they told the FBI.

After a violent struggle in which Reid bit another flight attendant on the thumb, the suspect was restrained, tied up with passengers’ belts and ultimately sedated by two doctors who happened to be aboard, the witnesses said.

The FBI was alerted while the plane was in flight, and counterterrorism authorities in Washington, Britain, France and elsewhere launched what they described Sunday as an intensive investigation into the incident--and into the man claiming to be Reid.

His true identity remained unclear. Despite being listed as Reid--the name on his British passport--in U.S. court papers filed Sunday, French authorities identified him as a Sri Lankan named Tariq Raja. Authorities in London said they believed he is a British national.

After more than a day of questioning Reid and investigating his background, however, authorities said it appeared that the suspect was not acting as part of some larger terrorist conspiracy.

“Everything is always subject to change this early in an investigation, but [FBI investigators] believe he was working alone and not affiliated with any group,” one federal law enforcement official in Washington said. Like other authorities, the official stressed that the investigation is continuing and that evidence could surface at any time linking Reid to one of many terrorist cells flourishing in his hometown of London or elsewhere in Europe.

Authorities initially were concerned that Reid’s passport may have been altered or fraudulent. The FBI said Sunday that he had obtained a British passport at the British Embassy in Brussels, Belgium, almost three weeks ago.

A French police official said he did not know whether Reid had reported his passport lost or stolen before obtaining a new one.

It is a common tactic of terrorists to get replacement passports at consulates in foreign countries in hopes of concealing past travel that could draw suspicion--particularly to countries, such as Pakistan, that are gateways into terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.

U.S. authorities said they were pursuing that line of inquiry and Reid’s apparent conversion to Islam some years ago. Initial efforts to identify Reid were complicated by his apparent use of several Muslim names--Raja and Abdel Ramin among them.

If convicted on the interference charge, Reid faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine. Samantha Martin, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston, said Reid could face further charges as the investigation progresses. She would not comment on whether he was cooperating with authorities.

Late Sunday, authorities were still scrambling for clues as to why--and even if--Reid was trying to blow up a crowded airplane just before Christmas.

The preliminary investigation’s findings were a relief of sorts, FBI officials said, in that they seemed to indicate Reid was not part of a much-feared “second wave” of terrorist assaults some fear from Osama Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network in retaliation for U.S. military actions in Afghanistan.

But they were alarming for other reasons.

They offered proof, officials said, that airport security remains ineffective in screening for potential terrorists.

And Reid’s alleged activities were a dramatic reminder to U.S. authorities that terrorism comes in many guises, from organized and highly trained attack cells to nearly invisible loners with a grudge and access to explosive compounds.

“The message here as this unfolds is that terrorists are going to hit us again; I’ve said that. Is it part of a widespread deal or was this guy acting alone? We don’t know yet,” said Sen. Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, ranking Republican on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, on CBS’ “Face The Nation” after being briefed by the FBI. “What I believe is now, although we’ve made a lot of headway since Sept. 11 as far as air safety, we’ve got a long way to go.”

In response to the incident, the Federal Aviation Administration on Sunday ordered airlines and airports to guard against passengers being able to board a plane with explosives hidden in their shoes, spokeswoman Laura Brown said. The FAA had warned airlines on Dec. 11 that terrorists might try to hijack a plane in the United States or Europe and hide weapons in their shoes.

Reid initially was prevented from taking the Paris-to-Miami flight Friday because he was stopped for a lengthy interrogation by airline security agents and French police at De Gaulle Airport.

Reid caught the attention of American Airlines security personnel during the routine questioning conducted before check-in, a French police official said.

“His responses to the questioning were not satisfactory,” the police official said. “He only had carry-on luggage, which was also suspicious. The airline security agents turned him over to the police and he was questioned thoroughly.”

Reid told the police that he was headed to Antigua via Miami to see relatives, the official said.

The interrogators decided that his passport was valid and that his story checked out. They cleared him to fly, but by then the flight had left. He returned Saturday and was cleared to board Flight 63, again carrying only hand luggage, according to the police official.

The birth date on his passport is Aug. 12, 1973, although information from the FBI indicated that the birth date they have for Reid is Aug. 21 of that same year, the police official said.

French authorities have opened two investigations since his arrest. The first will focus on the attempted attack and the second will review security procedures to see if a breakdown enabled the suspected suicide bomber to board the plane, according to the French border police official.

If Reid is a convert to Islam recruited by terrorists, he could fit a profile that has caused great concern to law enforcement in France and other European countries since Sept. 11.

As early as October, French officials told The Times of eyewitness testimony that Americans, British, French, Scandinavians and other non-Middle Eastern men had trained at Al Qaeda terror camps in Afghanistan in recent years.

French law enforcement officials believe the arrest of John Walker Lindh only confirmed testimony they had heard that a man from California had trained at an Al Qaeda camp.

Non-Arab converts are prime candidates to attempt hijackings and other terror attacks because they are less likely to attract the suspicions of airport and border police on the lookout for Middle Eastern and North African terrorists, counterterrorism officials said.

The report of Reid’s Sri Lankan nationality seems to contradict the information identifying him as a British citizen. But it is not unusual for suspected terrorists to use multiple documents and aliases.

Zacarias Moussaoui, the French-Moroccan facing trial in the U.S. in the Sept. 11 plot, had a fake Algerian passport as well as an authentic French one. And a suspected London-based Al Qaeda kingpin nicknamed Abu Doha was indicted by U.S. federal prosecutors under that alias this year because of doubts about his real identity.

Smuggling explosives in a shoe also has been a tactic contemplated in the past by terrorists affiliated with Bin Laden.

Abdul Hakim Murad, a conspirator in a plot to blow up 12 airliners heading to the United States from Asia on the same day, told authorities in 1995 that he could mix explosives with other chemicals to bypass airport X-ray detection scanners. He also said he could smuggle aboard the plane a small amount of plastic explosive needed to detonate the mixture, by hiding it in his shoes.

“Nobody can catch it because when you enter that, the X-ray, I mean the rays are a little bit up from your shoes. You can pass that,” said Murad, who was convicted.

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Meyer reported from Boston and Rotella from Paris. Times staff writers Marjorie Miller in London, John J. Goldman in Boston and Alan C. Miller in Washington contributed to this report.