U.S. and British intelligence officials believe that failed shoe bomber “Richard Reid” was “a ‘foot soldier’ [oh, the irony — ed.] sent to check the destructive power of shoe bombs against civilian targets,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

“Reid” was packing a bomb blended from “Mother of Satan” (triacetone triperoxide) and PETN (pentaerythritol tetranitrate, which can be ignited with a normal cigarette lighter), intelligence sources report — suggesting that the wannabe hightop kaboomdit was in league with a group whose members are…well, far more capable than he. As one British intelligence official notes:

‘These bombs are sophisticated devices….They would have been difficult and dangerous to produce. Reid could not have done this himself — he would have trouble tying his own shoelaces. It seems we may have an expert bomb maker on the loose in Europe.’

The article goes on to detail the connections and similarities between the particulars of Reid’s attempted bombing and the familiar footprint of 1993 World Trade Center bombing “mastermind,” Ramzi Yousef (though “mastermind” might be too strong a word for a guy who nearly blew himself up cooking unstable nitro cocktails in his Manila kitchen…):

Yousef trained other bin Laden terrorists in the use of explosives and told them of a plan he code-named “Project Bojinka” — “bojinka” means “explosion” in Serbo-Croat — which used a form of shoe bomb.

Designed as a terrorist “spectacular” that would instantly kill thousands of people and eclipse every other terrorist atrocity in history, Yousef planned to blow up 11 U.S. passenger jets scheduled to fly simultaneously over the Far East in January 1995 by using tiny, undetectable bombs […]

[…]’The parallels are really chilling,’ said a senior FBI official, referring to the Reid case. The official added that security devices to detect explosives on passengers are still in the development stage.

Another similarity noted by investigators was the placement of the shoe bomb components. Having obtained Boeing blueprints, Yousef calculated the most devastating place to detonate his bombs was in a seat above the center fuel tank, adjacent to the wing. The bomb alone would not destroy the plane, but it would detonate the fuel, ripping the jet apart. Reid, perhaps following Yousef’s example, chose a window seat close to the Boeing 767-300’s fuel tank.

For the love of God, would somebody please explain to Norman Mineta why “profiling” is a perfectly fine investigative tool — particularly when war has been declared against you. Closely scrutinizing men who fit the general description of your enemy is not the same as rounding up Muslims and herding them into interment camps …

—–