January 31, 2003 Friday

Would-Be Shoe Bomber Gets Life Term; Al Qaeda Member Shouts at Judge

Pamela Ferdinand, Special to The Washington Post

BOSTON Jan. 30

Richard C. Reid, the British drifter and Muslim fundamentalist who attempted to detonate bombs in his shoes during a transatlantic flight, today was sent to prison for life as the first admitted member of al Qaeda sentenced in the United States since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Reid, 29, remained defiant, describing himself as a soldier of war and denouncing U.S. policies against Muslim nations as justification for his attempted downing of American Airlines Flight 63 in December 2001. Nearly 200 passengers and crew members were aboard the Paris-to-Miami flight.

In a dramatic climax to the two-hour proceeding, Reid was muscled out of the courtroom in handcuffs by four federal marshals after shouting at U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young. Young had concluded the sentencing with a stern defense of his decision to put Reid behind bars for life without possibility of parole.

"We are not afraid of any of your terrorist co-conspirators, Mr. Reid. We are Americans. We have been through the fire before," the judge said. "You are not an enemy combatant -- you are a terrorist. You are not a soldier in any war -- you are a terrorist."

Young asked Reid to take note of an American flag above their heads, saying it would fly for many years to come. Then, ordering a marshal to take Reid away, the judge said, "Custody, Mr. Officer. Stand him down."

Reid, partially shaven with straggly hair falling to his shoulders and a goatee, stood up immediately to his full, imposing height of 6-foot-4 and pointed at the judge. Several of the crew members and passengers who were on the flight looked stunned, glancing at each other and shaking their heads. One woman cried.

"That flag will be brought down on the day of judgment and you will see in front of your Lord and my Lord and then we will know," Reid said, in a heavily accented, rapid-fire cadence. "You will be judged by Allah."

When he pleaded guilty in October, Reid pledged his support to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and declared himself an enemy of the United States. He declared that allegiance again today in a federal courthouse surrounded by bomb-sniffing dogs and armed federal agents.

"Your government has sponsored the torture of Muslims in Iraq and Turkey and Jordan and Syria with their money and their weapons," Reid said. "I am at war with your country."

Federal officials praised the tough sentence as a step forward in the war against terrorism. Reid was sentenced on eight charges, including attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted murder.

"The sentence sends a strong message not only to Richard Reid, but to others who harbor hate and are committed to violence against the United States," said U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan. "The court made it perfectly clear that there is going to be no tolerance in our system of justice for those wanting to commit crimes of hate against innocent people."

Owen Walker, one of Reid's federal public defenders, declined to comment.

But in court filings, defense attorneys characterized Reid as a troubled man motivated by a desire to defend Islam, which he credited with saving him from a life of petty crime and drugs. Walker said today in court that there was no malice or hatred in his client's sentiments.

"There are millions of Americans who have anti-American views," Walker said.

The judge retorted: "They don't go around trying to blow up planes."

Reid's case was one of several highly publicized cases in the aftermath of the attacks. Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person in the United States accused as a conspirator in the attacks, is scheduled to stand trial next June in U.S. District Court in Alexandria unless he is turned over to the U.S. military as an enemy combatant. John Walker Lindh, the suburban Californian who had traveled to Afghanistan to study Islam, received 20 years in prison in October after pleading guilty to supplying services to the Taliban. He was not, however, charged with conspiring to kill Americans.

In the year since the "shoe bomb" episode, more than a dozen individuals who frequented Reid's haunts in London and Paris have been arrested. Last week, French authorities charged two suspected Islamic militants with links to terror groups; one of them, Karim Bourti, had been interrogated last year about his ties to Reid. And earlier this month, British police raided the London mosque where Reid worshiped before moving to Afghanistan and Pakistan in 1997.

Prosecutors said Reid's scheme unraveled about 90 minutes into Flight 63, as the plane soared over the North Atlantic. Passengers and crew members overpowered Reid, tying him to his window seat and sedating him after a flight attendant noticed him futilely trying to light a fuse protruding from one of his high-top hiking boots. Police and the FBI later said the plastic explosives in Reid's shoes were powerful enough to rip a hole in the fuselage of the Boeing 767.

"We have no reason to believe that Richard Reid remains anything but a dedicated enemy of this country, ready to attack Americans and their interests," Assistant U.S. Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. told the judge.

One of the flight attendants, Carole Nelson, also asked the judge to impose a life sentence. As she described how fearful children on the flight huddled together, she briefly glanced at Reid.

"I believe that Richard Reid was on a mission of evil, a mission of destruction and a mission of murder," she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.