By Denise Lavoie, Associated Press, 12/26/01

BOSTON -- The FBI is still investigating whether a man who tried to ignite explosives in his shoes during a trans-Atlantic flight had ties to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.

The FBI hasn't ruled anything out in its investigation of Richard C. Reid, including whether Reid has links to bin Laden, whether he was supported by other terrorist groups, or whether he acted alone in the incident Saturday aboard a flight from Paris to Miami, according to FBI sources.

During American Airlines Flight 63, Reid allegedly tried to touch a lit match to a fuse protruding from one of his shoes. Two flight attendants and several passengers grabbed him and used belts to strap him into his seat, while two doctors sedated him with drugs from an airplane medical kit.

The Boeing 767, carrying 197 people, was diverted to Boston with an escort of two fighter jets.

Two government officials, speaking only on the condition of anonymity, said Wednesday that some low-level prisoners in Afghanistan have identified Reid as an al-Qaida member who trained at Osama bin Laden's terrorist training camps in that country).

U.S. interrogators showed the prisoners photographs of Reid, and some said they had seen him. But the officials said they had not verified the prisoners' claims, and warned that the prisoners could be wrong, or lying to confuse or gain favor with their interrogators.

The chairman of the Brixton Mosque in London confirmed that Reid had attended the mosque at the same time as Zacarias Moussaoui, who is charged with conspiracy in the Sept. 11 attacks.

It is unclear whether Reid and Moussaoui ever met. The FBI in Boston would not comment Wednesday on any possible connection between the two men.

A former FBI agent in Boston said officials initially believed Reid was a deranged extremist who acted largely on his own. But he said authorities are still looking into any possible support he may have received from organized terrorist groups.

"The guy appears to be a wannabe terrorist," said the agent, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

"He's not the kind of guy (a terrorist group) would put on a plane with any kind of direction. They'd be worried that he would do exactly what he did -- act abnormally. He defies the whole profile of a terrorist -- he's disheveled, he is calling attention to himself."

Tanya DeGenova, a former FBI agent who headed the counterterrorism squad in Boston, said it will require a painstaking, multinational investigation to determine whether Reid was connected to bin Laden's group or any other terrorist group.

"You want to make sure you have his true identity, then you want to determine his connections and try to retrace his steps prior to this trip (from Paris to Miami) to see whether he met with someone and whether he was tasked by someone else to carry out a mission," DeGenova said.

"The most important thing would be to place him in a (terrorist) cell and identify that, whether it's in Sri Lanka, London, or somewhere else, and then go from there."

Reid is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Boston Friday for a bail hearing.

Federal prosecutors will ask to continue holding him without bail. They said they will argue that he is at risk to flee the country and a danger to society.

Reid is now charged only with intimidation or assault of a flight crew, but the FBI said additional charges are likely. The current charge carries a maximum 20-year sentence.

Reid is being held at the Plymouth County House of Correction in a cell segregated from the rest of the inmates.

Timothy Bane, chief deputy of the U.S. Marshal Service in Boston, said Reid remained under a 24-hour suicide watch Wednesday.

"It's just out of an abundance of caution that we're keeping him under watch," Bane said.

After his arrest Saturday, French officials initially said they thought Reid -- who has also used the names Tariq Raja and Abdel Rahim -- was from Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, said he was not a Sri Lankan national.

George Fergusson, consul general for the British Consulate in Boston, said Reid's British passport appears to be valid. It says he was born in the United Kingdom.

Investigators have not identified the type of explosive material found in devices in Reid's sneakers, but preliminary FBI tests determined the devices were functional.

A source familiar with the preliminary tests who spoke on condition anonymity said the substance could have been a plastic explosive other than C-4, which was used in the deadly October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen.