‘Reid was top security risk' - Israel

Alleged ‘‘shoe bomber’’ Richard Reid was considered a top security risk and had to remove his shoes for special screening before boarding a flight from Israel this summer.

A spokesman for Israel’s national carrier El Al said even after no explosives were found, the airline seated the 28-year-old Londoner next to an armed sky marshal in the second to last row, far from the cockpit.

Reid apparently flew to Israel last July to try to find weaknesses in the airline’s vaunted security system, in preparation for a possible attack on an El Al flight, another source said.

Reid, who is accused of trying to blow up a plane from Paris to Miami using explosives hidden in his black suede basketball trainers, faced an American court yesterday.

He had a ‘‘home-made bomb’’ capable of ripping through the side of the American Airlines plane, FBI special agent Margaret Cronin told the hearing in Boston.

Reid was remanded in custody during the preliminary court appearance after US magistrate Judge Judith Dein said his ‘‘violent and assaultive behaviour’’ towards the cabin crew showed he posed a danger to the public if released.

‘‘He acted with callous disregard for the safety of others, and, in fact, appears to have intended to cause them all serious harm, if not death.’’

Reid, who was handcuffed and wearing an orange jumpsuit, was charged with intimidation or assault of a flight crew, which carries a maximum 20-year sentence, and the FBI has said further charges were likely.

Ms Cronin said Reid was carrying ‘‘functioning improvised explosives, or, in layman’s terms, a home-made bomb.’’

She said an explosives expert concluded that if the shoes had been placed against an outside wall and detonated, they ‘‘would have blown a hole in the fuselage’’.

US government officials believe the plan may have failed because he was unable to light the fuse, said Ms Cronin.

Assistant US Attorney Colin Owyang said Reid had ‘‘no verifiable address anywhere in the world’’, had been living in hotels in Paris, and had no known friends or relatives in the US.

His lawyer Tamar Birckhead urged the public to keep an open mind about the Muslim convert, saying: ‘‘We are unaware of any evidence to support a link between the offence charged and any terrorist organisation or individual.’’

Investigators were today continuing urgent efforts to check which countries Reid visited in the months before the alleged attempt to bomb the plane.

In the Netherlands, authorities said yesterday they were investigating whether Reid bought explosives and trainers in Amsterdam.

From Amsterdam, Reid boarded an El Al flight to Tel Aviv on July 7. He spent five days in Israel, before travelling to Egypt via the Rafah border crossing at the southern end of the Gaza Strip.

From Egypt, Reid apparently returned to Europe on a commercial flight, the Israeli Maariv daily said yesterday.

El Al spokesman Nachman Klieman said Reid aroused the suspicion of ground personnel during the pre-boarding security check because of his appearance and because he was travelling only with a hand bag.

He said Reid was subjected to a ‘‘very rigorous check of all the items he was carrying, as well as a personal search, including the removal of shoes and sending the shoes to be checked. Everything he was carrying was checked.’’

The search did not allay suspicions and Reid was given a window seat in the back of the plane, with an armed sky marshal next to him in the aisle seat.

An El Al security official said he believed Reid flew to Israel to check the airline’s security arrangements, in preparation for a possible attack on a future El Al flight.

‘‘He must have dropped this plan in a hurry. It’s pretty hard to smuggle weapons onto an El Al flight.’’

Earlier, it emerged that Reid, formerly from Brixton, south London, told the FBI he had bought the material for the devices from a dealer he found on the internet.

He said he had spent £1,000 on the explosives during a visit to Amsterdam in the days before the apparent attempt to blow up American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami, according to the New York Post.

Reid’s mother Lesley Hughes, of Frome, Somerset, yesterday repeated her fears for her son and asked to be left alone to ‘‘come to terms with the current situation’’.

In another twist, Durham cricketer Danny Law released a statement acknowledging that he was Reid’s cousin, but distancing himself from his alleged actions.

Law, 26, who previously played for Essex and Sussex, said he had ‘‘very little contact’’ with Reid, whom he only remembered meeting twice.

Reid’s aunt said he was not a terrorist but merely a ‘‘lost soul’’, it was reported today.

Madeline Reid, 50, said her nephew had ‘‘found solace’’ with his Muslim brothers after allegedly being rejected by his mother.

She said: ‘‘They became his family and he owed them loyalty. I don’t believe for a second he was burning with hate for the West. He’s no terrorist - he’s a lost soul.’’

In a letter to his aunt, sent in May and signed from Abdul Raheem Abu Ibrahim, he begins with a series of Arabic phrases before asking her to pray for him.

Madeline, 50, of Sussex, believes her vulnerable nephew was exploited for a cause which he had misunderstood to be a holy war.

She said: ‘‘I just believe he was very vulnerable and they asked him to do something. They had become his family. Wouldn’t you be prepared to die for your family?. Most people would. I believe he thought he was in a holy war.’’