PARIS (From Wire Reports) – Explosive devices that a man allegedly smuggled aboard an airliner in his sneakers would have created a “major disaster” if detonated, the FBI said Monday. The suspect showed little emotion at his first court appearance, and a jail spokesman said he was being “very compliant.”
U.S. and European investigators were trying Monday to sort out the identity of the man, who was identified by authorities as Richard Colvin Reid. Flight attendants and passengers subdued Mr. Reid after he allegedly tried to detonate the explosives Saturday during an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami.
The Boeing 767 airliner, carrying 183 passengers and 14 crew members, was escorted to Boston by two fighter jets.
French authorities have opened two inquiries into how the man could have slipped past checkpoints, despite heightened security as a result of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings in the United States.
U.S. investigators would not identify the type of explosive material they said was found in devices in Mr. Reid’s sneakers, but they said preliminary FBI tests determined that the devices were functional.
“It would have resulted in significant damage, and we did avert a major disaster,” said Charles Prouty, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston office.
Officials at Logan International Airport in Boston had described the substance as consistent with the military plastic explosive C-4.
An official familiar with the preliminary tests, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Monday that the substance could have been a plastic explosive other than C-4, which was used in the deadly October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen.
Mr. Reid was ordered held in federal custody Monday in Plymouth, Mass., pending a bail hearing Friday. Authorities said they had no evidence to link him to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network.
Mr. Reid has used at least two other names, and his identity remained unclear.
In Washington, officials said information received by U.S. investigators suggested that the suspect’s father was British, his mother was Jamaican, and he was born in Sri Lanka but was a naturalized British citizen. When he was questioned by police before boarding, the suspect said he was heading to Antigua to visit family.
In London, Scotland Yard said Monday they believed the suspect was a British national. But Sri Lankan officials said Mr. Reid may be one of their own.
“We are not ruling out the possibility that the man is a Sri Lankan,” Deputy Inspector General of Police G.B. Kotakadeniya said on Monday.
Citing information from U.S. sources, French authorities identified the man Sunday as a Sri Lankan who went by two names, Tariq Raja and Abdel Rahim. A day later, however, an official with France’s border police said the man was being considered a British national because he had no documents proving Sri Lankan citizenship.
The suspect appeared Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Judith Dein in Boston, sitting alone, and dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit and prison-issued plastic sandals. When asked whether he understood the charge – intimidation or assault of a flight crew – he answered quietly: “Yeah.”
Mr. Reid, 28, asked for a court-appointed attorney. If convicted, he could be sentenced to 20 years in prison. The FBI said more charges are likely.
Mr. Reid met with an officer from the British Consulate in Boston just before Monday’s hearing. The meeting is standard for anyone presumed to be British and charged with a serious crime, consulate press officer Terri Evans said.
During the American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami on Saturday, two flight attendants and at least a half-dozen passengers grabbed Mr. Reid and strapped him into his seat after he allegedly tried to touch a lit match to a fuse protruding from one of his shoes.
Mr. Reid will undergo a routine psychiatric evaluation, jail spokesman Michael Seele said in Plymouth.
“He’s been very compliant,” Mr. Seele said. “He’s been very cooperative.”
Mr. Prouty said the FBI was investigating whether Mr. Reid had links to al-Qaeda and hasn’t ruled anything out. But a government official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said investigators had nothing to link Mr. Reid to the terrorist network.
Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, who is the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence committee and has been receiving regular briefings, said the FBI still has to determine whether the suspect was acting alone, where he obtained the explosives, and their source.
“He certainly didn’t get them at the corner grocery store,” Mr. Shelby said.
French officials met to review security at airports in France, particularly at Charles de Gaulle International Airport outside Paris, where the flight originated.
The man had tried to board the same flight Friday but aroused suspicions and was questioned. Although he was later given the green light, he missed his plane and was rebooked for Saturday.
Fluvio Raggi, director of France’s border police, said that airport police had conducted a “detailed control” of the man Friday at the request of airline officials.
“This individual was not recorded in our files, so, being in possession of an authentic passport, there was no reason to not let him take his trip,” Mr. Raggi told France-Inter radio.
Government officials were discussing airport security and the specific duties handled by airline companies, airport officials, and security services, the Interior Ministry said in a prepared statement.
A separate inquiry is being conducted by the anti-terrorist police and France’s domestic intelligence agency.
Airports around the country and in Europe boosted security after the incident. Some are requiring passengers to send their shoes through X-ray machines. Paris airports have increased the number of patrolling officers and bomb-sniffing dogs at check-in counters and passport control stations, the French Interior Ministry said.
Walk-through X-ray machines used in the United States to screen passengers for weapons can’t detect plastic explosives, and most passengers and their carry-on bags aren’t checked for explosives by other means, such as bomb-sniffing dogs.
Though Congress has ordered that U.S. airlines have a system by Jan. 18 to inspect all checked baggage for explosives, walk-through devices that could detect them on passengers are still in the developmental stage.
