2A -The Michigan Daily -Thursday, January 17, 2002
NATION/WORLD
0I
Reid charged as al-Qaida operative
WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal grand jury
yesterday charged alleged shoe bomber Richard Reid
with being an al-Qaida trained terrorist in an indict-
ment Attorney General John Ashcroft hailed as fresh
proof of the government's ability to prosecute terror-
ists.
Ashcroft said the charges "alert us to a clear,
unmistakable threat that al-Qaida could attack the
United States again."
The attorney general discussed the charges shortly
after a federal grand jury in Boston handed up a
nine-count indictment, saying, "We must be pre-
pared. We must be ready. We must be vigilant."
The indictment alleges that Reid attempted to kill
the passengers on American Airlines Flight 63 from
Paris to Miami on Dec. 22.
"Richard Reid did attempt to use a weapon of
mass destruction, consisting of an explosive bomb
placed in each of his shoes," against Americans, said
the 12-page indictment.
Ashcroft credited passengers and crew on that
flight with stopping Reid from detonating the shoe
bomb and bringing down the plane. "Our trust in the
common sense of people who act in the face of ter-
rorism was vindicated," he said. He said yesterday's
indictment showed the wisdom of national alerts the
government issued on three occasions prior to the
Flight 13 incident.
Yesterday's indictment said Reid "received train-
ing from al-Qaida in Afghanistan."
In addition to attempted use of a weapon of mass
destruction and attempted murder and attempted
homicide, Reid was charged with placing an explo-
sive device on an aircraft, interfering with a flight
crew, using a destructive device during a crime of
violence and attempted wrecking of a mass trans-
portation vehicle.
He also was charged with attempted wrecking of a
mass transportation vehicle, a new charge created by
Congress in an anti-terrorism bill enacted in the
wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Wash-
ington.
"Our ability to prosecute terrorists has been greatly
enhapced by the U.S.A. Patriot Act," Ashcroft said.
Reid "did place on that aircraft explosive devices
contained in the footwear he was then wearing," the
indictment said, referring to the American flight.
Ashcroft said if convicted on the charges brought
against him, Reid could be sentenced to five life
terms.
There were 183 passengers and 14 crew members
on the flight, which was escorted into Boston's
Logan Airport.
On the charge of interfering with the flight crew,
the indictment said Reid assaulted and intimidated
flight attendants Hermis Moutardier and Christina
Jones.
White House was
consulted on Enron
AD
NEWS IN BRIEF
HEDLN S O RU DTEkOL Y
NEW YORK
Mille terrorist jailed for 24 Years
An Algerian was sentenced to 24 years in prison yesterday - the maximum
- for his role in a plot to detonate a suitcase bomb at the Los Angeles airport
amid the millennium celebrations.
Mokhtar Haouari, who lives in Canada, was convicted last summer of federal
charges he supplied fake IDs and cash to two others in the plot.
The plot was foiled when its mastermind, Ahmed Ressam, was arrested in
Washington state in December 1999 while trying to enter from Canada in a car
with a trunkful of explosives. Ressam had been trained in terrorist camps
financed by Osama bin Laden, according to investigators.
At the time, prosecutors said that the attack on the crowded airport in the days
before Jan. 1, 2000, could have been the bloodiest act of terrorism against the
United States since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. .&
Haouari turned down the opportunity to speak at his sentencing and sat impas-
sively.
"The defendant's conduct posed a great risk to the well-being of the American
people," U.S. District Judge-John Keenan said.
The jury found finding Haouari guilty of conspiracy to supply material sup-
port to a terrorist act. He was also convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud.
NEW YORK
Charges against Egyptian student dropped
Charges were dropped yesterday against an Egyptian student accused of lying
to federal investigators about an aviation radio found in his hotel room near the
World Trade Center.
Another guest at the hotel came forward Monday, three days after Abdallah
Higazy was charged, and told hotel officials the radio belonged to him, said Mar-
vin Smilon, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office said.
Prosecutors had accused Higazy, the 30-year-old son of an Egyptian diplomat,
of interfering with the investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks.
Higazy had insisted in two rounds of FBI interviews that he knew nothing of
the hand-held radio. Prosecutors had said the radio was found in Higazy's room
along with his Egyptian passport, a copy of the Quran and a gold medallion.
After the other guest at the Millennium Hilton Hotel came forward, federal
prosecutors asked that the charges against Higazy be dismissed, Smilon said.
A judge approved the dismissal of the charges yesterday, and it was unclear
whether Higazy had been freed, Smilon said. He was arrested Dec. 17 as a mater-
ial witness in the investigation of the terrorist attacks.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The White
House disclosed yesterday it was con-
cerned about how a potential Enron
collapse would affect the U.S. econo-
my and had economic adviser Larry
Lindsey, a former Enron board mem-
ber, study the issue.
The disclosure came as congressional
investigators questioned the fired Arthur.
Andersen auditor who the company
says led a rush effort to destroy Enron
documents. The accounting firm says
the destruction began after Enron
announced the Securities and Exchange
Commission had launched an inquiry of
the energy company.
Staffers from the House Energy and
Commerce Committee interviewed
fired auditor David Duncan for several.
hours yesterday afternoon. "It went
very well," said Edith Holleman, a
Democratic staff member.
At the White House, spokesman Ari
Fleischer said Lindsey and his econom-
ic team concluded that Enron's collapse
Inside: More on Enron. Page 5A
--------------------------------------------
would not hurt the U.S. and global mar-
kets - the same finding reached by
Peter Fisher, the Treasury undersecre-
tary in charge of financial markets. Fish-
er's review stemmed from two phone
calls from Enron Chairman Ken Lay to
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill on Oct.
28 and Nov. 8. The Lindsey review
began in mid-October.
Lindsey, who was paid $50,000 by
Enron as a member of the company's
advisory board, has said he had no con-
tact with Enron about its financial woes.
In a separate development, the for-
mer chief of staff for Sen. Joseph
Lieberman, who is leading one of the
investigations of Enron, tried unsuc-
cessfully last summer to arrange a
meeting between the senator and Lay,
the Enron chairman. Lieberman's
spokesman, Dan Gerstein, said he
does not know what Lay wanted to
meet about.
"
U.S. questions
linked to Tali
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - the man showedq
U.S. investigators yesterday questioned a har airport, where1
man who describes himself as a financial are based and a de
supporter of the Taliban and showed up dreds of al-Qaidaa
voluntarily at the biggest U.S. base in The man rema
Afghanistan offering information. day but was not b
Pentagon officials said the man had A Pentagon offic
given money to the Taliban but had not anonymity that h
been a member of the Islamic regime that of wanted men, b
ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. It tors were "jumpin
was not known what information he has At the Pentagc
about the complex web of support of chairman of the J
Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist net- the man was bein
work, which was sheltered by the Taliban. would not give de
Marine spokesman Lt James Jarvis said or say how he cam
man
)anl
up Tuesday at the Kanda-
thousands of U.S. troops
etention center holds hun-
and Taliban fighters.
aned on the base yester-
eing detained, Jarvis said.
cial said on condition of
e was not on the U.S. list
but Jarvis said investiga-
g with joy."
on, Gen. Richard Myers,
oint Chiefs of Staff, said
g questioned. But Myers
tails on the man's identity
ne to the base.
PARIS
Debris blamed for
Concorde crash
A much-awaited government report
on the fiery crash of an Air France
Concorde confirmed a long-held theo-
ry that a piece of debris from a Conti-
nental Airlines plane was a factor in
the deadly accident.
The 400-page report by France's.
Accident Investigation Bureau, or
BEA, released yesterday says the crash
of the luxury supersonic on July 25,
2000 could not have been foreseen.
But it also takes aim at what it says are
some sloppy operations by Air France
and Houston-based Continental.
Continental yesterday sharply
denied any suggestion that it was
responsible for the crash, which killed
113 people.
The report said a Continental Air-
lines DC-10 shed a piece of metal
known as a wear strip onto a runway
that the ill-fated Concorde later used
for takeoff.
WASHINGTON
IRS to audit 50,000
randomly this year
Aiming to target its audits better, the
IRS intends a special random check this
year of about 50,000 individual tax
returns but will subject fewer people to
the intense, face-to-face questioning that
drew heavy criticism in the past.
IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti
said yesterday the goal is to collect an
up-to-date snapshot of the taxpaying
public so that audits get better results.
Almost a quarter of Internal Revenue
Service audits now done turn out to
have been unnecessary; the new infor-
mation could reduce the number of no-
change audits by 15,000 a year.
"We don't want to audit somebody
who doesn't need to be audited,"
Rossotti told reporters. "We have an
opportunity to reduce the burden on
the honest taxpayer."
The project, officially called the
National Research Program, was last
done in 1988:
WASHINGTON
Senate office set to
reopen tomorrow
Officials pronounced the Hart Senate
Office Building free of anthrax yester-
day, and maintenance crews began
preparing it for reopening tomorrow,
three months after a letter laden withthe
deadly bacteria was opened there.
In a pair of memos e-mailed to sen-
ators, health and environmental offi,
cials said repeated effdots'tode1bahse
the building had "achieved the goal of
eliminating viable anthrax spores." "
It is clean and safe ... for rehabilita-
tion and reoccupancy" said the memo,
citing the findings of the Environmen-
tal Protection Agency, the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, and
other agencies.
Even so, there were mixed reactions
among workers about returning to the
building where a letter believed to con-
tain billions of anthrax spores was
opened Oct. 15 in the office of Senate
Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.).
- Compiled from Daily wire reports,
ad II
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