Failed terrorist and would-be ‘shoe bomber’ Richard Colvin Reid was sentenced to life in prison yesterday in federal court, maintaining his allegiance to Osama bin Laden and Allah.
District Judge William G. Young shackled Reid, a British national, with three life sentences, an additional 110 consecutive years in prison and several thousand dollars in fines for eight charges stemming from his failed attempt to blow up American Airlines flight 63 over the Atlantic Ocean on Dec. 22, 2001. The flight landed safely in Logan.
Reid, a.ka. Abdul-Raheem, pleaded guilty to all eight counts on October 4 of last year. The charges ranged from attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction to interference with flight crew members.
Reid tried and failed several times to detonate his explosives-laden shoes with matches before he was overpowered and restrained by members of the flight crew.
Unhandcuffed and clad in a tan Department of Corrections jumpsuit, Reid remained defiant to the end. Given the chance to speak on his own behalf, he condemned the United States foreign policy in the Middle East as a crusade against Islam and reaffirmed his faith in Allah and terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.
‘I admit, I admit my actions and I further state that I done them,’ the six-foot-four-inch terrorist said almost unintelligibly. ‘I further admit my allegiance to Osama bin Laden, to Islam and to the religion of Allah.
‘I think I ought not apologize for my actions. I am at war with your country. I’m at war with them not for personal reasons but because they have murdered … so many children and they have oppressed my religion and they have oppressed people for no reason except that they say we believe in Allah.’
He appeared emotionless and relaxed for most of the two-hour proceedings, sitting back and coolly stroking his beard, picking at his nails and rolling his head.
‘As far as the sentence is concerned,’ he said, shrugging his shoulders, ‘it’s in your hands. Only really it is not even in your hand. It’s in Allah’s hand … And he will give victory to those who believe and he will destroy those who wish to oppress the people because they believe in Allah.’
Members of Flight 63’s crew filled the jury box, some dressed in uniform and wearing red, white and blue ribbons on their right lapels. Three crew members bore witness to the violence of Reid’s actions and asked the court to impose the maximum penalty.
‘I’d like to tell you that I feel very lucky to be standing here in your courtroom or anywhere for that matter,’ said flight attendant Carol Nelson, who had helped subdue Reid.
The most frightening thing, Nelson said, was what she called Reid’s ‘zero regard’ for ‘well over’ 20 children on board the plane.
‘I can still see the fearful look on their faces as Richard Reid tried to blow them out of the sky with their families,’ she said.
Nelson’s fellow flight attendant Cristina Jones told the court how Reid’s violence not only traumatized her but also her 13-year-old son.
‘My son watched on TV as I was removed from an ambulance after having been bitten by a person who was bent on evil,’ said Jones, who was bitten by Reid in the struggle to disarm him.
‘Children are part of our future, and Mr. Reid not only dragged me into this war on terrorism but also my innocent son.’
Citing what he called Reid’s ‘deliberate choices and decisions about who, how, what, when, where and why to bomb Americans,’ Assistant United States Attorney Gerard T. Leone asked the court to put Reid away for life.
‘Richard Reid has never expressed regret for or acknowledged the gravity of his crimes,’ Leone said. ‘I would submit that his acts denigrate the name of the Islamic religion… We have no reason to believe that Richard Reid remains anything but committed of this country.’
‘A life sentence is the only sentence,’ he said.
Reid’s own attorney, Federal Defender Owen S. Walker, likened Reid’s actions to war crimes, calling his assault on the plane ‘an absolutely horrifying situation that nobody should have to go through.’
But Walker maintained that it would be rash to sentence Reid to life because he said it is impossible for the court to properly judge the crimes while the current war on terrorism continues.
‘This is a case that is smack in the middle of geopolitical forces forces that I submit that we don’t fully understand,’ Walker said. ‘We don’t know right now the real significance of this case. We don’t know what these acts of terrorism are going to be viewed as in years to come.’
Quoting Abraham Lincoln, Walker importuned the court to follow in America’s recent history of embracing former enemies with ‘malice toward none.’
‘That is our tradition in this century our bitterest enemies become our dearest friends,’ Walker said, citing America’s postwar relationships with Germany and Japan.
Judge Young sentenced Reid for all eight counts despite his defense’s last-ditch effort to delay sentencing on all but the first charge, using and carrying a destructive device during and in relation to a crime of violence, which carried a mandatory 30-year sentence.
Reid’s last hope hinged on a sole federally classified document that not even the defense was cleared to see. Judge Young was the only person involved in the case who had seen the document, and he ruled that is was ‘peripheral’ to the sentencing.
Not so much as flinching when his sentence was read, Reid’s only display of emotion came minutes later.
Reid lunged forward and was restrained by federal agents as he was remanded into custody, incited by Judge Young’s condemnation of his actions and rejection of the notion that he was soldier of any kind.
‘You are not an enemy combatant,’ Young said. ‘You are a terrorist. You are not a soldier in any war. You are a terrorist. To give you that reference, to call you a soldier gives you far too much stature… You’re a big fellow. But you’re not that big. You’re no warrior. I know warriors. You’re a terrorist.
‘See that flag,’ Young continued, pointing to the American flag above the bench. ‘That flag will fly there long after this is all forgotten. That flag still stands for freedom.
‘You know it always will,’ he said.
As federal agents secured the prisoner and dragged him out the courtroom, Reid looked at Young and said, ‘That flag will be brought down on the day of judgment and you will see in front of your Lord and my Lord and when we will know.’