National Security & Defense

Eugene

(61,899 posts) Mon Jun 8, 2015, 07:17 PM Jun 2015

Man pleads guilty to plotting suicide bomb attack on Kansas airport

Source: Reuters

US | Mon Jun 8, 2015 4:16pm EDT

Man pleads guilty to plotting suicide bomb attack on Kansas airport

WICHITA, KAN. | BY ALICE MANNETTE

A man accused of plotting a suicide bomb attack at a Wichita, Kansas, airport in 2013 pleaded guilty on Monday in U.S. District Court to a charge of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.

Terry Loewen, 59, was arrested trying to enter the tarmac at the airport with what he believed was a vehicle loaded with explosives, with a plan to trigger the device next to a terminal and die in the blast, according to a criminal complaint.

A plea agreement calls for Loewen to be sentenced to 20 years in prison, followed by lifetime supervision. U.S. District Judge Monti Belot set sentencing for Aug. 31.

"Terry Loewen utilized his privileged airport access to attempt a terrorist attack in Wichita," Assistant Attorney General John Carlin said in a news release. "Detecting, disrupting and holding accountable those who wish to harm Americans remains our highest priority."

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Man pleads guilty to plotting suicide bomb attack on Kansas airport (Original Post) Eugene Jun 2015 OP

Another FBI "sting". Wilms Jun 2015 #1

Wilms

(26,795 posts)

1. Another FBI "sting".

Reply to Eugene (Original post)

Mon Jun 8, 2015, 09:19 PM

Jun 2015

They likely cooked up the whole plot. They gave him the fake explosives, and then they arrested him. So we can feel safer.

Terry Loewen, a former avionics technician, was arrested in December 2013 after authorities say he tried to bring a van filled with inert explosives onto the tarmac at Mid-Continent Airport, now Eisenhower National, in Wichita. His arrest capped a sting operation in which undercover FBI agents posed as co-conspirators and gave him the fake explosives.

In a court filing, the government seeks to counter defense claims that an undercover FBI agent radicalized Loewen and induced him to commit the crime. The heavily redacted public version of the document was devoid of most of the facts behind the case supporting the prosecution’s arguments.

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Defense attorneys contend that the evidence of government entrapment is so strong that the indictment should be thrown out even before the case goes to a jury. They argued Loewen had no predisposition to commit the crime when the government began its investigation in June 2013.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/local/article11961503.html

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