Does the loser who tried to light his shoe bombs with a match have important information about ongoing plots to attack the US? Prosecutors want to question shoe bomber.

BOSTON - Federal investigators told a judge Tuesday that they want to question would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid because it was likely that he has “important information” about terrorist activities.

But prosecutors said in U.S. District Court they don’t believe Reid is entitled to a public defender now that his criminal case is over.

Reid, a British citizen and self-described follower of Osama bin Laden, pleaded guilty in 2002 to trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with explosives hidden in his shoes. He is now serving a life sentence at a maximum-security federal prison in Florence, Colo.

Here’s our post on the day Reid was overpowered and subdued by passengers on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami: disaster averted.