- The leader of a London mosque where American Airlines
Flt. 63 suicide bomber Richard Reid worshipped said Wednesday that he is
just one of at least one hundred militant British Muslims who are prepared
to execute similar attacks.
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- "You would have at least 100 or more individuals
who would be prepared to do that," said Abdul Haqq Baker, Chairman
of Brixton Mosque where both Reid and suspected 9/11 terrorist Zacararias
Moussaoui worshipped, in an interview with the BBC.
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- "Those propagating the extreme views are relatively
few in number but in the last four or five years we have witnessed that
number grow quite frighteningly," Baker explained, adding that there
were perhaps as many as 1,000 extremist Muslims in the UK, of whom at least
100 were ready to become suicide bombers.
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- On Tuesday the Boston Globe reported the FBI believed
Reid was part of a "wider network" of Islamic extremists. Baker
told the BBC that Reid came to the mosque to learn about Islam but soon
fell in with what he called "more extreme elements".
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- Sources speaking on condition of anonymity told NBC News
Wednesday that some al-Qaeda prisoners under U.S. control in Afghanistan
said they recognized Reid, also known as Abdel Rahim, as having attended
terrorist training camps operated by Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.
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- Reid was identified from photographs shown to the prisoners
by U.S. interrogators. The al-Qaeda detainees said they remembered him
as being "high-strung."
-
- Reid's plan to blow Flight 63 out of the sky was foiled
when an alert flight attendant noticed him trying to detonate explosives
aboard the Miami-bound Paris flight and restrained him with the help of
other passengers.
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