The man suspected of trying to blow up an airliner with a bomb hidden in his shoes received explosives training at the same al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan as Mr Zacarias Moussaoui, the Frenchman charged with involvement in the September 11th plot, US intelligence sources said yesterday.
Mr Richard Reid appeared in shackles yesterday at a Boston court where he was ordered to remain in custody until his trial. He was charged only with intimidation or assault of the crew on the Paris-Miami flight a week ago, but more serious charges are expected. An FBI expert witness testified that there was enough plastic explosive hidden in his shoes to blow a large hole in the American Airlines plane.
Mr Reid spent most of the 17-minute hearing with his head bowed, showing little emotion. But he appeared to smile when the court was told how he was tackled by passengers and flight attendants and subdued.
He is reported to have told investigators that he bought the explosive, TATP (triacetone triperoxide) using the internet, but US intelligence believes he is part of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network, and that he was almost certainly recruited by Mr Moussaoui, who attended the same Brixton mosque.
"Moussaoui and Reid had a more substantive relationship than just going to the same mosque," said a US intelligence source. "They went to the same training camp in Afghanistan, where Reid had explosives training. Plus there are records of telephone calls between Moussaoui and Reid."
According to the charges against him, Mr Moussaoui trained, like the 19 hijackers involved in the September 11th attacks, to be a pilot and received funds through the same channels. He was the first person indicted in connection with the attacks, having been detained on immigration charges less than a month before.
His indictment alleges that he attended Khalden camp, which appears to have been used to train al-Qaeda's international brigade of volunteers from beyond the Gulf and Egypt. The US government has until March 29th to decide whether it plans to seek the death penalty for Mr Moussaoui.
Ms Judith Dein, the judge who presided over Mr Reid's bail hearing, agreed with the prosecution that the seriousness of the allegations meant there was a substantial risk he might flee if bailed.
FBI special agent Ms Margaret Cronin, an expert witness on air crime, testified that Mr Reid was carrying "functioning improvised explosives, or, in layman's terms, a home-made bomb".
She said the black suede basketball shoes Mr Reid had been wearing contained enough explosive that "if placed beside an outer wall could have or would have created a large hole in the fuselage of the plane". Mr Reid had been sitting in a window seat.
Investigators are trying to determine the exact construction of the device and why it failed to go off. Some reports suggest that sweat from Mr Reid's leg dampened the fuse.
His mother, Ms Lesley Hughes, told journalists outside her home in Frome, Somerset, yesterday she was extremely concerned about her son.