Richard Colvin Reid: Theoretical Analysis

The arrest of Richard Colvin Reid on December, 22nd, 2001 by U.S. federal Authorities defines the ideological context in which a terrorist can be defined as a covert military agent for Al Qaeda. Cowell’s (2001) article defines evidence of the arrest of Reid as a” man accused of trying to ignite explosives-packed sneakers on American Airlines flight 63 from Paris to Miami” (para.2). This unusual method in the weaponization of Reid’s shoes provides important insight into the covert style of warfare being used by a terrorist. In contrast to outward methods of warfare in the use of a gun, or other standard weapon of war, Reid chose to use a “shoe-bomb” in order to destroy a civilian passenger plane. In this manner, Reid had used a covert weapons through the guidance of a terrorist network, such as Al Qaeda, to plan a suicide bombing to destroy the lives of American citizens and an American commercial airliner. These are the technical aspects of Reid’s terrorist actions, which define a terrorist through covert methods of destruction with unorthodox weaponization of bombs found in his shoes. A terrorist often uses covert methods of

Reid’s guilt was not only associated with his own admission of being a terrorist, but through the context of his affiliations with Al Qaeda. These are other standards of terrorism, which define the premeditated cooperation with Al Qaeda with Reid to plan this attack on American civilians. Therefore, Richard Reid is a terrorist because he has willing planned this mission with the assistance of a known international terrorist organization. Certainly, the court proceeding of Reid’s trial define the terrorist nature of Reid’s actions as a conscious act of aggression in the terrorist mode, since he had planned to destroy American lives and a commercial airliner in this type of military-based covert