Lessons of shoe-bomb incident — ‘Groups like Al Qaeda may now be using operatives who don’t fit the police profiles.’

Experts say that the tall, lanky passenger on Flight 63 with plastic explosives in his hightops likely did not act alone. The explosives were too sophisticated for a drifter to obtain; more likely, he was a tester for a larger terrorist organization, they say.

“It’s a classic evolution of criminal organizations: When you clamp down on one kind of drug carrier or operative, they reach out to others,” says Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general at the US Department of Transportation.

Christian Science Monitor