The surprise guilty plea by Saajid Badat in London for conspiracy to place an explosive device on an airliner has brought the shoe bomber saga full circle and shown that the innovative attempted suicide bombing of an airliner by an explosive device hidden in a shoe in December 2001 was not a unique or isolated tactic. Indeed, investigators were able to tie the convicted terrorist Richard Reid, another unidentified terrorist in Belgium, and Badat together. Badat was accused of conspiring with Reid and, indeed, possessed a similar device to the one Reid attempted to use. Allegedly the detonating cord material was identical in both devices. In addition, it has also been alleged that both men were planning to detonate the devices within a close timeframe on transatlantic flights from Europe to the US.

This sort of organized action bears the hallmark of a group like al-Qaeda and contradicts thoughts that Richard Reid was a lone wolf, even if he was affiliated with al-Qaeda. Although Richard Reid claimed that he was the one who came up with the so-called shoe bomb tactic, it would seem that with the new revelation of a second shoe bomber, this tactic may have been part of a wider al-Qaeda plot in 2001. The plot did not succeed because Reid was stopped from detonating the device by passengers and crew, and Badat decided not to go through with his part of the plot.