Here's the distraction we were expecting today. Still developing, as they say.http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Terror%20ChargesBy CURT ANDERSON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- U.S. authorities brought charges Monday against a British man they claim conspired with admitted al-Qaida member Richard Reid to use shoe bombs to blow up planes in midair.
A federal grand jury indictment unsealed in Boston charges Saajid Badat, 25, with attempted murder, trying to destroy an aircraft and other counts related to the alleged conspiracy with Reid, who also is a British citizen and Muslim convert.
... According to the indictment, Badat "admitted that he was asked to conduct a shoe bombing like Reid"
when he was arrested in Britain last November. Bomb components similar to Reid's - including an explosive compound known as TATP - were found at his home, the indictment said.
... Badat, a British citizen,
pleaded innocent last month to similar British charges and faces trial there beginning Feb. 28.
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