Shoe-bomber's father: blame me

LONDON - The father of Richard Reid, the so-called "shoe-bomber", says he stands by his son and holds himself responsible for the act of terror that could have killed 196 aircraft passengers and crew.

"I blame myself for not being there when he was growing up," Robin Reid told the BBC. "I was in prison when I should have been there."

Richard Reid, 29, a British citizen, pleaded guilty in a United States court on Saturday to trying to blow up a transatlantic flight by detonating explosives hidden in his shoe. He faces a 60-year jail sentence.

His father has already been the target of self-appointed avengers. The windows at his flat, on a rundown council estate in Streatham, south London, have been broken. His front windows are covered with chipboard. At the back of the flat, one pane of glass has been smashed and others are protected with mattresses, chipboard or closed curtains.

Richard Reid laughed as he admitted to a court in Boston, Massachusetts, that he had tried to blow up a Paris-to-Miami flight in December.

"Basically, I got on the plane with a bomb. Basically, I tried to ignite it. Basically, yeah, I tried to damage the plane."

He was overpowered by passengers, who tied him up with belts and headphone wires.

Robin Reid, 52, said his son had been "brainwashed" by Muslim extremists.

"I am just grateful he did not succeed. I think now that my son will die in prison. I will try and visit him, but with my record I may not get a visa and with my disability it will be hard.

"I will have to just write to him and hope he knows that I support him and love him I always will."



In Virginia, a court sentenced John Walker Lindh, an American member of the Taleban, to 20 years in prison for fighting in Afghanistan after the World Trade Centre attacks last year.

Lindh, 21, read a 14-minute statement to the court before the sentencing. Almost breaking down at one point, Lindh, who had converted to Islam, said he had "made a mistake" joining the Taleban forces.

The sentence was agreed on through a plea bargain deal under which Lindh briefed federal investigators on everything he knew about the Taleban and al Qaeda.

He was one of a number in federal custody to tell of a plan that called for a three-wave attack on the United States.

The toppling of the World Trade Center was part only of the first phase.

Investigators said they had no evidence to support what Lindh said about the three-phase conspiracy.

But Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert who interviewed Lindh, said Lindh told him he picked up rumours while with the Taleban about attacks after September 11.

- INDEPENDENT