| http://www.israelinsider.com/channels/security/articles/sec_0164.htm
"Shoe-bomber" terrorist spent week in Israel By Ellis Shuman���December 27, 2001 � 12/27 Airplane shoe bomber was detained at Ben-Gurion Airport Jerusalem Post Richard Reid, the terrorist who attempted to bring down an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami this week by igniting explosives hidden in his sneakers, visited Israel in June and was briefly detained at Ben Gurion International Airport. Reid reportedly arrived in Israel from Europe and identified himself as a citizen of Sri Lanka, media sources reported. Upon arrival, Reid's appearance raised the suspicion of security officers at the airport, and he was detained for questioning, but later released. After one-week's stay in Israel, Reid left the country for Egypt through the international border crossing at Rafah. Israeli security officials, in cooperation with the FBI, are investigating whether Reid arrived in Israel with the intention of gathering intelligence for a terror attack he was planning. Officials are trying to retrace Reid's visit in Israel, to discover where he stayed and with whom he met while he was in the country. Le Monde reported that Reid's previous passport was marked with visits to Egypt and Turkey in the year 2000. According to the paper, Reid's Middle East travels raise the possibility that his bombing attempt was in coordination with a larger terror organization. ABCNews reported that Reid was acquainted with accused hijack conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and that both men trained at the same al Qaida camp in Afghanistan. bin-Laden blames Sept. 11 attacks on U.S. support for Israel Meanwhile, the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television network broadcast Wednesday night a new videotape depicting Osama bin-Laden. Filmed apparently two weeks ago at an undisclosed location, bin-Laden for the first time claimed the September 11 terror attacks in New York and Washington were a direct result of U.S. support for Israel. "Our terrorism is against America," bin-Laden said in the tape. "Our terrorism is a blessed terrorism to prevent the unjust person from committing injustice and to stop American support for Israel, which kills our sons.'' bin-Laden condemned the United States for its actions in Afghanistan. "It is quite clear now that the West, generally speaking, and in particular America, has an indescribable hatred of Islam,'' he said. "The people who have lived the last months under the continual American air strikes, they know that very well. Many villages were wiped out for no crime and many millions were displaced in this cold weather.'' Al-Jazeera broadcasted two minutes of the videotape on Wednesday, and plans to broadcast the entire 33-minute-long tape on Thursday. The station said the videotape was filmed in mid-December, marking three months after the September attacks and two months after the start of the American military campaign against Afghanistan's Taliban regime and the al-Qaida terrorist organization. "This is nothing more than the same kind of terrorist propaganda we have heard before,'' White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters in Crawford, Texas, where President George W. Bush is on vacation at his ranch. |
