But if he knew they were checking shoes at airport security, then he probably would have put it somewhere else.
But anyway - the point was 'general escalation of security in airports which caught the Richard Reid' is a provably false statement.
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/09/30/saudi.arabia.a...
Are you familiar with any recent bomber story at all? All he needed was some matches and a small amount of plastique.
Someone put an incendiary in his underwear. There are tons of possibilities. If you can't name 3 ways other than shoes and underwear, you might be in the group that thinks the TSA is fine.