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CNN Live Today

New Information Comes Out About Alleged Shoe Bomber Reid

Aired May 23, 2002 - 12:33   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: There is new information coming out on alleged shoe bomber Richard Reid. Jonathan Aiken in D.C. working this side of the investigation for us. Jonathan, good afternoon.

JONATHAN AIKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi. Good afternoon to you, Bill. We have a couple things to pass along that are coming out of some papers filed in federal court in Boston today. Boston, of course, where Richard Reid is being held. He's facing nine counts, accused primarily of trying to blow up American Airlines Flight 63. That was a Paris to Miami run. On December the 22, he allegedly was going to do this using an explosive device hidden in some sneakers.

Prosecutors today are saying that Reid told them after his arrest that he decided to choose an American target after the United States started to bomb the Taliban in Afghanistan on October the 7th. And in their filings today, the government lawyers go on to say this: "He" -- meaning Reid -- "further claimed to have chosen to attack an airplane because he believed an airplane attack, especially during the holiday season, would cause the American public to lose confidence in airline security and stop traveling, leading to a substantial loss of revenue, which in turn would hurt the American economy."

Now, the documents filed today in Boston go on to offer some details of an e-mail that Reid sent to his mother two days before he boarded that flight in Paris, an e-mail in which he explained why he was sending her a document that he described as "a will." According to the papers filed by the government, Reid wrote to his mother: "You can see that I didn't do this act out of ignorance, nor did I do just because I wanted to die." There's obviously a word missing. "But rather," he wrote, "because I see it a duty upon me to help remove the oppressive American forces from the Muslim land, and that this is the only way for us to do so as we do not have other means to fight them."

Now, of course, the explosives never went off. Reid allegedly was unable to light them, and was later subdued by passengers on the flight and was arrested when the plane made an emergency landing in Boston.

Couple of other nuggets coming out of this filing. They confirmed information that we've reported for some time now -- prosecutors believe that Reid did, in fact, have an accomplice in putting those devices together. A hair was found inside one of the explosives devices he was said to be wearing, and a palm print was picked up on the paper actually used to make the device itself. We still have no ID on any of this; could be one accomplice, could be more.

Another item, and this requires a little bit of memory on your part. You might remember a "Wall Street Journal" reporter paid about $50 and bought a laptop that was found in an al Qaeda safe house in Kabul. Well, that computer, when it was cracked, turned out to have details of travels by an al Qaeda scout that was identified as Abu Roff (ph), a person who traveled from Belgium through the Middle East and into Pakistan last summer. Well, in these filings today, federal prosecutors confirm, in fact, they think it was Reid who did that traveling, and that he paid for his ticket on the American Airlines flight $1,800. He paid for it in cash, Bill, even though prior to his getting on that plane he had no known sources of income.

HEMMER: Fascinating stuff, and more and more comes out by the day, or the week in this case. Jonathan, thank you. Jonathan Aiken in D.C.

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