[iwar] [fc:E-mail.ties.Richard.Reid.to.Pakistan]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2002-01-19 17:33:36
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Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2002 17:33:36 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [iwar] [fc:E-mail.ties.Richard.Reid.to.Pakistan]
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E-mail ties Richard Reid to Pakistan

Investigators find digital clues; Yahoo, Hotmail asked to help
In this court drawing by an artist, Richard Reid is seen Friday addressing the judge 
to enter a plea of not guilty. Cameras are not being allowed in the coutroom.

 NBC, MSNBC AND NEWS SERVICES

Jan. 19 —  In e-mails apparently sent by shoe-bomb suspect Richard Reid before he 
boarded a Paris-Miami flight, he indicated he would be destroying an airplane and, 
after being thwarted from boarding an earlier flight, asked one recipient in Pakistan 
if he should “go again.” The mail was found on the hard drives of computers used 
by the 28-year-old Briton while he was in Paris, French news media reported Saturday.

        COMPUTER EXPERTS were able to retrieve the data off hard drives from computers 
used by Reid, Europe 1 Radio and the newspaper La Provence reported Saturday.

      Europe 1 reporter Frederic Helbert provided the greatest detail, telling NBC 
News that French sources said the e-mails so far showed that:

 A few hours after Reid missed a Paris-Miami flight on Dec. 21, he sent e-mail to 
a Pakistani address from the business center of the Copthorne Hotel, where American 
Airlines had put him up after tight security prevented Reid from making the flight. 
In that e-mail he told the recipient of the difficulty of boarding and asks, “Should 
I go again?” An e-mail was sent back to Reid that said, “Yes, go again.”
 Reid sent an email — a testament of sorts — to several mosques in England and Belgium. 
He sent a similar mail to his mother and claimed responsibility for the destruction 
of an airplane but did not say who he was working for.

 He wrote that he was a “martyr for the Islamic cause” and asked his mother to convert 
to Islam.

ACCOUNTS IN EUROPE, PAKISTAN
       Upon arriving in Paris, Reid created an e-mail address from a computer kiosk 
in a subway station in a largely Arab neighborhood in northern Paris called the Goutte 
d’Or (Drop of Gold), officials said. He also frequented two cybercafés in Paris and 
one in Brussels.

       European investigators have discovered Reid created e-mail boxes in other 
countries — two in Britain and three in Pakistan.

       Reid sent messages throughout Europe, many to Belgium and numerous others 
to Pakistan, computer experts said after examining the hard drives.

       FBI agents and a U.S. prosecutor arrived in Paris last Monday to work with 
French authorities investigating the e-mails, Helbert reported.

         The U.S. team was expected to ask two e-mail hosts — Hotmail and Yahoo 
— for authorization to get more details about some of the addresses found on the 
hard drives, particularly that of the Pakistani.

NBC’s Robert Windrem, citing U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, 
said intelligence services have long identified Yahoo and Hotmail as the al-Qaida 
terrorist network’s preferred means to send e-mail.

       The benefits to al-Qaida are that such services can be accessed from any 
computer in the world with an Internet connection, can be encrypted if necessary, 
and accounts can be opened and closed quickly. Moreover, the services do not retain 
records of emails for a long period of time.

ACCOMPLICES?
       Helbert said French investigators still do not know where Reid stayed during 
the week he was in Paris before finally boarding the Paris-Miami flight on Dec. 22.

       All Paris-area hotels have been checked, leading investigators to believe 
that he was lodged by someone privately.

       Investigators also believe Reid had an accomplice with the ability to stabilize 
the explosive in his running shoe.

       That explosive, TATP, is so volatile it could easily have exploded while 
he walked, Helbert cited investigators as saying. Moreover, TATP is effectively stabilized 
for only 48 hours before it reverts back to its volatile form.

       Reid was subdued by flight crew and passengers when he allegedly was spotted 
trying to light a fuse on the shoes.

NOT-GUILTY PLEA
       In a Boston courtroom Friday, Reid pleaded not guilty to a nine-count federal 
indictment charging him with trying to blow up the Paris-Miami flight as it was over 
the Atlantic Ocean.

       He was indicted Wednesday on the new charges and accused of ties to Osama 
bin Laden’s al-Qaida network. Initially held for interfering with a flight crew, 
Reid faces charges more closely tied to terrorism, including the attempted use of 
a weapon of mass destruction.

       “Not guilty,” Reid answered softly when asked to enter a plea in the case.

       One of Reid’s court-appointed attorneys said the indictment does not accuse 
Reid of acting for a terrorist group.

       “We note that the indictment does not allege that any of the crimes charged 
were committed on behalf of or to further the cause of al-Qaida or any other terrorist 
organization,” Tamar Birckhead said in a statement. “We are aware of no basis for 
such an allegation.”

       On Wednesday, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Reid “is being charged 
as an al-Qaida-trained terrorist” and could face up to five life sentences.

       Ashcroft said the charges “alert us to a clear, unmistakable threat that 
al-Qaida could attack the United States again.”

       The other charges include: attempted murder and homicide; placing an explosive 
device on an aircraft; interfering with a flight crew; attempted destruction of an 
aircraft; using a destructive device during a crime of violence; and attempted wrecking 
of a mass transportation vehicle.

       The London-born Reid is being held in Plymouth, Mass. No bail has been set 
because Reid is considered a risk to the public and likely to flee if released. Reid 
could be moved to Alexandria, Va., to stand trial. A Justice Department spokesman 
has said the federal court there has expertise in terrorism matters and could provide 
better security.

AL-QAIDA TRAINING CITED
       The indictment also alleges that “at various times ... Richard Colvin Reid 
received training from al-Qaida in Afghanistan.” It did not specify when or where 
inside Afghanistan Reid is alleged to have been trained.

       The indictment came as the Wall Street Journal reported finding an alleged 
al-Qaida computer in Afghanistan that contains a travel itinerary very similar to 
that taken by Reid in the months before his arrest.

       The itinerary is said to be that of an “Abdul Ra’uff” and a senior U.S. official, 
speaking on condition of anonymity, told NBC News that the intelligence community 
has “few doubts” that Ra’uff is Reid.

       An Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity said it was possible 
Reid was gathering intelligence during those travels for large-scale attacks in Tel 
Aviv and other cities.

       Investigators are seeking any links between Reid and al-Qaida operators. 
There have been reports that Reid spoke with Zacarias Moussaoui, the first man charged 
in the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

       NBC News’ Nancy Ing, Pete Williams and Robert Windrem, MSNBC’s Jon Bonné 
and The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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