Suicide Bomber Gets Subdued By Pasensgers!

[Anonymous]

Maybe this WILL be a good year!

The would-be suicide bomber who tried to set off explosives packed in his shoes on a Miami-bound passenger jet is believed to be British, Scotland Yard said last night.

American Airlines flight 63 from Paris to Miami was forced to make an emergency landing in Boston when the man allegedly tried to set off “improvised explosives”.

He was overpowered by passengers and crew as he tried to detonate the device two and a half hours after leaving Paris. He was being questioned yesterday by the FBI.

Scotland Yard said: “It is believed he is a British citizen”, although French police had described him as a Sri Lankan national. To add to the confusion, some American reports suggested he was Syrian. Inquiries in France and the United States are focusing on how the man, with hardly any luggage, managed to avoid improved security measures put in place since the 11 September terrorist attacks.

The French authorities identified him as Tariq Raja, aged 28, who also goes by the name Abdel Rahim.

He had one small bag with him and said he was travelling to Antigua to visit family. US authorities said they found enough plastic explosive in his shoe to badly damage the aircraft, a Boeing 767 carrying 185 passengers and 12 crew.

Forensic science experts were testing about 10 ounces of a substance from his shoe, which was understood to have tested negative for C-4, a highly dangerous material used in the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, but checks were continuing to see whether it was some related substance.

The suggestion that it might have been C-4 raised the possibility that the incident was linked to Osama bin Laden’s
al-Qai’da network, blamed for the Yemen attack.

In Washington, Senator Richard Shelby, the senior
Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the FBI was taking the attack “very, very seriously”. He told CBS TV’s Face the Nation programme: “From what I’ve observed, this man was trying to blow himself up, blow the plane up. Is this part of a widespread deal or is this guy acting alone? We don’t know yet.”

The attack was a huge embarrassment for the French. They had detained Mr Raja, and questioned him at length, as he tried to board the same flight at Charles de Gaulle airport on Friday, causing him to miss the departure to Miami. Then they let him go. They have launched two inquiries after the security lapse showed the vulnerability of aircraft to “low-technology” attacks. Dogs trained to react to C-4 are believed not to have responded to Mr Raja. The episode has drawn comparisons with the 11 September hijackings in the US when terrorists gained control of four flights using
box-cutter knives.

A spokesman for the French border police, responsible for security at airports, said: “For the moment, we do not know how this man got through. He had a British passport, and we’re trying to determine whether it was falsified.”

The passport was issued in Belgium three weeks ago. Several suspected members of
al-Qa’ida had recently passed through Brussels, where a network for supplying false identity papers is known to operate. The French authorities would not comment on whether the man had links to terror groups. But the investigation will look at his background and possible links to underground organisations in France and Europe.

Mr Raja’s plan was foiled when a member of the cabin crew saw him trying to light the makeshift fuse. Thierry Dugeon, a 36-year-old television reporter from Paris, said he heard a flight attendant 10 rows in front of him shouting: “I need some help!

“I was there in five seconds, and there were already two or three guys on him,” he said. “It was like everybody knew what they needed to do. It’s pure instinct because it goes so fast. You’re not going to think twice.”

Mr Raja, who was using the name Richard Reid, was belted into his seat by passengers and sedated. The heels of his shoes were later found to be filled with what appeared to be explosives and contained what looked like detonator wires, said a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan airport.

The aircraft was escorted to the airport by two US F-15 fighter jets and landed safely.

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