'TATP Shoes' Could Have Wrecked Airliner, Prosecution Said

Richard Reid was sentenced yesterday, to the maximum penalty, life in prison, for trying, three days before Christmas in 2001, to blow up an American Airlines Paris-Miami flight. An alert flight attendant smelled the sulfurous stench of matches, and discovered Reid trying to set his shoes on fire.

The 197 aboard were given a reprieve, as Reid was subdued. His shoes, housing a bomb made of triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, could, prosecutors said, have terminated the flight in mid-ocean.

Reid showed his true colors in the courtroom, calling judge William Young a terrorist, and berated the USA, as well, saying in court, "Your government has sponsored the torture of Muslims in Iraq, and Turkey, and Jordan and Syria with their money and weapons."

Reid pleaded guilty; he was sentenced to life in prison on three counts: attempted use of weapon of mass destruction, plus two counts of interference with flight crew and attendants using a dangerous weapon.

Young also sentenced Reid to 20 years in prison on each of four additional counts: attempted murder of U.S. nationals outside the United States; placing an explosive device on an aircraft; attempted murder of people on board the flight; and attempted destruction of an aircraft.

There was 30 years added on, for using a destructive device in a crime of violence. He was also ordered to pay restitution of $250,000 for each charge -- a total of $2 million. [Maybe after Reid serves his sentence, he can earn enough money to pay that fine.]

In court, Reid admitted again what he had tried to do, pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden, and added, "The U.S. government is responsible for murder and torture."

Confusion of terms

Reid tried to say he was a "soldier," perhaps hoping to get "enemy combatent" treatment in the "war on terror." The judge used a more-traditional definition of what was represented by the British thug: "You are not a soldier in any war -- you are a terrorist," he told Reid.

Defense wanted more evidence shown

Reid's defense asked for a sentencing delay, because, it said, the government was holding documents that may include information favorable to Reid. They maintained that their release would help make the trial of their confessed terrorist look less like a railroad job. Didn't happen.

FMI: www.fbi.gov