The Shoe Bomber's World

WHAT DOES THE SAGA OF RICHARD REID TELL US ABOUT AL-QAEDA? TIME RETRACES HIS TRAIL TO FIND OUT

It was the scream that people noticed. Monique Danison, an American college student, had just finished lunch on American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami when she heard a woman cry out in terror. "When someone screams the way she did," says Danison, "you know something bad is happening."

Bad is right. Richard Reid, a British passenger on the Boeing 767, was trying to light a fuse protruding from his shoe, witnesses say. According to the FBI, packed in the sole were enough high explosives to blow a hole in the fuselage of the aircraft. But the attempted bombing was...

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