The U.K.’s The Observer catches on:

Osama bin Laden’s network gave [Shoe Bomber Richard] Reid’s suicide mission sophisticated backing, paying for him to criss-cross the world on numerous airline flights, despite his having no discernible form of work or official address. It taught him to obtain plastic explosives and fashion them into a cunningly disguised bomb.

Yes. But thankfully the “network” never taught him how to ignite a “cunningly” simple match…

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