Richard Colvin Reid The Shoe bomber

Takeoff! Richard Reid was born in London to a Jamaican father and an English mother. His parents divorced when he was four, and he stayed with his mother. He was a small time street offender. In jail he converted to Islam.

Rockin’, man! Reid became more and more militant, and eventually moved to the Finsbury park Mosque, run by the radical Abu Hamza al-mazri.

He really got around… In 1998 he dissapeared from the Mosque, and at this time it is thought he went to Afghanistan. He travelled to 7 different countries with different names and passports, supposedly received from the Finsbury Park Mosque.

Dude, not cool. On December 22, 2001, the passengers on flight 62 from Paris to Miami could smell smoke shortly after the meal. Hermis Moutardier, an attendant was pointed to Reid. She said smoking wasn’t allowed, he promised to stop, but then when he kept doing it, she went to him again and he grabbed her, revealing a fuse leading to the heel of his shoe. passengers quickly subdued him, then bound him up with plastic handcuffs, seatbelt extentions, and headphone chords. The pilot administered a tranquilizer to him from the plane’s medical kit.

There was supposed to be a plane-shattering kaboom! The shoe contained a small bomb which failed to detonate when he lit the fuse. The bomb was made of a industrial plastic explosive, and the detonator was home made Triacetone Triperoxide.

Guilty as charged Reid was charged on eight counts, among which was attempted homicide and attempted destruction of an airplane. He pled guilty to all of them. He also claimed to be in league with al- qaeda, a soldier of Allah, a follower of Osama Bin Laden and an enemy of the United States.

The Judge William Young said this to him… "You are not an enemy combatant, you are a terrorist"... "You are not a soldier in any army, you are a terrorist. To call you a soldier gives you far too much stature. (points to U.S. flag) You see that flag, Mr. Reid? That is the flag of the United States of America. That flag will be here long after you are forgotten.”

Bring in the dancing lobsters Judge William Young sentenced him to three life sentences in prison with no possibility of parole and eight fines of $250,000.

Today He is currently serving life in United States Penitentiary, Florence ADX in Colerado, a supermax prison containing the most dangerous criminals in the federal system.

But he wasn’t alone… Reid claimed he was alone, but a strand of hair on the bomb that wasn’t his proved otherwise. Saajid Badat admitted he and another man, Nisar Trablesi, and Reid planned to blow up two flights on the way to the US more or less simultaneously with shoe bombs. He, however, chickened out and didn’t get on the flight, but didn’t warn authorities about Reid either.

Vidya m/media/action/yt/watch?v=nLy cAWlnkgUhttp:// m/media/action/yt/watch?v=nLy cAWlnkgU Its like 10 minutes long, it’s the opening statement for Reid before the trial