Afghan prisoner recognizes Reid

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MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
NBC News’ Tammy Kupperman, Fred Francis and Jim Popkin; MSNBC.com’s Mike Brunker, Anne Hurley and Alex Johnson and The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Dec. 26 —   At least one prisoner in Afghanistan has identified the man accused of smuggling explosives in his shoes onto a trans-Atlantic flight as someone who went through training at terrorist camps operated by Osama bin Laden, intelligence sources told NBC News on Wednesday. A U.S. official, however, cautioned that the United States has not yet verified that the identification is valid. “We are vetting the ID,” the official said.

U.S. SOURCES, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that some prisoners under U.S. control seemed to recognize Richard Reid, also known as Abdel Rahim, and one identified him as having attended al-Qaida the training camps in Afghanistan.
       Some of the prisoners, who were shown photographs of Reid by U.S. interrogators, remembered him as being “high strung,” the sources said.
       But a senior U.S. law enforcement official, who also spoke with NBC News on condition of anonymity, said the responses to the photo were ambiguous. Some prisoners seemed to recognize Reid, but could not say for certain whether they remembered him from an al-Qaida training camp, the official said.
       If confirmed, Reid’s attendance at a training camp would provide the first evidence linking him to bin Laden’s terrorist network.
       Word of the reaction to Reid’s photo in Afghanistan came as new details emerged about the suspect.
       Among other things, it was revealed Wednesday that Reid attended a London mosque at the same time as Zacarias Moussaoui, accused of helping to plot the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington.
       
SUSPECTS’ ATTENDED SAME MOSQUE
       Abdul Haqq Baker, chairman of the Brixton Mosque in south London, told NBC’s “Today” show that Moussaoui was expelled from the mosque shortly after Reid, using the name Abdel Rahim, began attending.

Reid later left the mosque after becoming increasingly radicalized, Baker said, adding that he believed both men attended “external study circles” held by radicals who advocate violence against Western interests.
       Moussaoui, a Frenchman of Moroccan origin, has been charged with conspiracy in the Sept. 11 attacks and is suspected of having been the “20th hijacker” in the attacks, prevented from participating only because he had been detained by U.S. authorities after behaving suspiciously at a flight school.
       Baker also said those who knew Reid at the mosque do not believe that he acted on his own Saturday when he allegedly attempted to bring down a Paris-to-Miami flight with plastic explosives hidden in his shoes.
       “The way this whole thing was thwarted and bungled, it was an indication of his naivete,” Baker said. “We are confident here he wouldn’t have acted alone.”
       France’s Le Monde reported Thursday that investigators believe Reid had financial support because he bought a Paris-Miami-Antigua-Miami-Paris plane ticket in cash for about $1,800 from a travel agency in the northern part of Paris, and after buying the ticket, he still had that much cash left.
       
RECORD AS PETTY CRIMINAL

The Times of London reported Wednesday that Reid was a petty criminal with a string of convictions for crimes such as muggings and was believed to have served time in several prisons in England. It said he converted to Islam while in custody.
       Reid remains under suicide watch pending a psychological examination, the U.S. marshal’s office said. He is scheduled to appear in court on Friday for a bail hearing on a charge of intimidation or assault of a flight crew.
       While on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami on Saturday, Reid allegedly tried to touch a lit match to a fuse protruding from one of his shoes. Two flight attendants and at least a half-dozen passengers grabbed him and used belts to strap him into his seat, and two doctors sedated him with drugs from an airplane medical kit.
       The Boeing 767, carrying 197 people, was diverted to Boston with an escort of two fighter jets.
       Reid appeared Monday before a U.S. magistrate in Boston. When asked if he understood the charge against him, he answered quietly, “Yeah.”
       Reid also asked for a court-appointed attorney. If convicted, he could be sentenced to 20 years in prison. The FBI said more charges were likely. He was being held under 24-hour suicide watch at the Plymouth County (Mass.) House of Correction.

Source: The Associated Press
       
SHOE BOMBS ‘ALARMINGLY SOPHISTICATED’

Meanwhile, FBI experts continued to analyze the shoe bombs. A senior U.S. official told NBC News on Wednesday that scientists believe they contained some type of plastic explosives and detonating cord, but the official disputed reports that a chemical had been added to the detonating cord to make it easier to light with a match. The official spoke on condition of anonymity. The explosive is not C-4, the military explosive most commonly available in the United States, a U.S. law-enforcement source told NBC News.
       The FBI intends to build replicas of the shoe bombs and detonate them, probably at the FBI Training Academy in Quantico, Va., to gauge their destructive power.
       On Tuesday, the Boston Globe quoted an unidentified law enforcement official as describing the improvised bomb as “alarmingly sophisticated, working bombs with enough explosive power to cause a disaster.” The sophistication raises questions about whether Reid had assistance, the newspaper quoted the official as saying.
       To explode the material under normal circumstances, a bomber must use a battery or blasting cap. The FBI, however, found that a substance was blended with the explosive that would have caused it to detonate had it been exposed to a sustained flame long enough, the Globe reported.
       “The belief is now that if he had a lighter and not a match, the thing would have detonated,” said the law enforcement official who spoke to the Globe. “They’re trying to find out as much as they can, as fast as they can about the guy.”

Meanwhile, France’s La Provence newspaper, citing police and intelligence sources, reported Tuesday that Reid had belonged to an Islamic movement called Tabliq but left because he said it was “not radical enough” for him.
       Tabliq, which has been connected with militant movements in the Comoros Islands, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran, recruits heavily in France, Muslim scholars said.
       French investigators had no information about that report, a French police official said.