Former CIA Director George Tenet wrote: “Sometimes the threats mentioned would strike you as absurd, and then al-Qa’ida would do something to convince you that nothing was out of the range of possibility. Who, for example, would have thought that exploding footwear could be a major air travel problem–until, that is, December 21, 2001, when Richard Reid was subdued on an American Airlines flight from Paris [France] to Miami [Florida] trying to light explosives hidden in his shoes?”
– George Tenet with Bill Harlow, At the Center of the Storm, Page 232