![POLICE FILE PHOTOGRAPH OF ALLEGED BOMBER RICHARD REID. Richard Reid Shoe Bomber](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/richard-reid-shoe-bomber.jpg?quality=85&w=2400)
By NBC News
Terrorist Richard Reid, who tried to blow up a jetliner with a shoe-bomb after 9/11, says he failed because that’s what God wanted.
In a letter from the supermax prison in Colorado where he is serving a life sentence, Reid told a researcher he believes the bungled 2001 attempt to kill 197 passengers on American Airlines Flight 63 was permitted by Islamic law.
“I admit many people would dispute that and disagree with me on that point,” the British-born Reid, 41, wrote. “However, at the same time I also believe that it wasn’t supposed to happen…”
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