Nation Man charged in alleged suicide bombing plot at Kansas airport after conspiring with undercover FBI agents
HANDOUT | REUTERS
Terry Loewen
Posted Dec. 14, 2013, at 2:16 p.m.
WICHITA, Kan. — For months, authorities allege, a 58-year-old avionics technician named Terry Lee Loewen — driven by radical ideas and prepared to die in a suicide attack — moved forward with a plot to detonate explosives at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport.
The planned attack was designed to inflict the maximum number of deaths at an airport in the nation’s midsection before Christmas, says a detailed criminal complaint filed Friday.
The plot got as far as a gate to the airport shortly before 6 a.m. Friday, when authorities arrested Loewen without incident. What he didn’t know until his arrest is that the people he had been conspiring with all along were FBI agents, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom announced Friday, stressing that the public and passengers were never in danger.
Loewen now faces three federal charges filed in Wichita: one count of trying to use a weapon of mass destruction, one count of attempting to damage property and one count of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization that Loewen thought was al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen.
On the afternoon of the day he had allegedly arranged for himself to die, he appeared instead in U.S. District Court in Wichita to hear himself accused of terrorism charges.
When Magistrate Karen Humphreys asked Loewen, “Do you understand your rights?” he replied, “Yes, ma’am” in a steady voice.
Loewen is being held in the Sedgwick County Jail.
Loewen worked as an avionics technician at the Hawker Beechcraft Services facility at the airport. The company said it suspended his employment after learning of the arrest.
He is alleged to have spent months developing a plan to use his access card to airport grounds to drive a van loaded with explosives to the terminal.
Authorities said he planned to pull the trigger on the explosives himself and to die in the explosion.
Grissom and FBI Special Agent in Charge Mike Kaste stressed that there was no indication Loewen was involved with or working with any religious community in Wichita and that his alleged actions in no way should reflect on any religious group.
Hussam Madi, spokesman for the Islamic Society of Wichita, said Friday: “We don’t even know who he is at all. We haven’t seen him here. This is the first time that we’ve heard of him.”
Madi said the society checked with mosques around the city and none of them knew of Loewen.
“We haven’t had any backlash,” as a result of Loewen’s alleged attempt at terrorism. “Hopefully, we don’t.”
No flights were delayed or canceled because of the incident, said Victor White, director of airports with the Wichita Airport Authority.
General aviation business also took place as usual, White said. Loewen was arrested at one of the gates and never got onto the airfield, White said.
Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office spokesman Dan Dillon said his office could find no evidence of a criminal history for Loewen in Sedgwick County.
Officials with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and FBI announced Loewen’s arrest at a news conference Friday afternoon in downtown Wichita that was attended by Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and area law enforcement officials.
Agents arrested Loewen about 5:40 a.m. Friday after they say he attempted to enter the airport tarmac and deliver a vehicle loaded with what he believed to be high explosives. Loewen was taken into custody when he tried to open a security access gate.
Members of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force took Loewen into custody without incident.
“There was no breach of Mid-Continent Airport’s security,” said Grissom. “At no time was the safety of travelers or members of the public placed in jeopardy.”
Loewen has been under investigation by the Wichita Joint Terrorism Task Force since early summer 2013, Grissom said. Loewen didn’t realize he was having an online conversation with an FBI employee in which Loewen expressed “desire to engage in violent jihad on behalf of al-Qaida,” the criminal complaint said.
Over a period of months, Grissom said, Loewen took a series of steps to act on the plot, as part of the jihad, or “holy war.”
According to an affidavit, Loewen:
— Studied the layout of the airport and took photographs of access points.
— Researched flight schedules.
— Assisted in acquiring components for the car bomb.
— Talked about his commitment to trigger the device and martyr himself.
The 21-page criminal complaint details the development of the alleged plot and extensively quotes Loewen’s communication with the FBI employees.
There is an Aug. 5 communication in which he told an FBI employee, “As time goes on I care less and less about what other people think of me, or my views on Islam. I have been studying subjects like jihad, martyrdom operations, and Shariah Law.” He was also quoted as saying, “I believe the Muslim who is labeled ‘a radical fundamentalist’ is closer to Allah … than the ones labeled ‘moderates.’ Just my opinion; if I’m off base, please set me straight.”
Three days later, on Aug. 8, after the FBI employee offered to introduce him to someone who could help him wage violence, the complaint says, Loewen wrote: “Brothers like Osama bin Laden … are a great inspiration to me, but I must be willing to give up everything (like they did) to truly feel like a obedient slave of Allah.”
Around Aug. 21, he sent a message saying, “I have numerous ideas of ways I could perform jihad,” and he said he had been sending money to the “Revolution Muslim website,” the complaint said.
Around Aug. 26, he talked to the FBI employee about giving a “tour” of Mid-Continent Airport, according to the complaint. About a day later, Loewen allegedly said: “I guess I look at myself as the ‘access’ guy at this point — just need more details at this point … are we talking explosives, because I know nothing about that? It’s all very surreal at this point, exciting, yet scary.”
He said he could escort someone onto the tarmac that leads to airliners and the control tower, and that he could gain access to bring a vehicle onto the tarmac, the complaint said.
Around Sept. 17, Loewen relayed photos of what looked like fighter jet trainers outside his hangar, the complaint said. The planes had apparently stopped for fuel. He talked of many “Apatche’s” staying overnight. And this, the complaint said:
“It would have been possible today for me to have walked over there, shot both pilots (I don’t know if they are armed or not), slapped some C4 on both fuel trucks and set them off before anyone even called TSA. Talks REAL cheap, however, so what I think I can do and what I actually can do are probably two different things.”
The complaint also gave this account: By early October, the FBI employee was telling Loewen that he had just come back from overseas and that “brothers” were excited about his airport access. When Loewen was asked if he could scout out targets and security and be willing to plant a device, he allegedly said, “I still need time to think about it, but I can’t imagine anything short of arrest stopping me.”
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JEFF TUTTLE | REUTERS
The
terminal at the Wichita Mid-Continent Airport where authorities
arrested a man suspected of plotting to blow up the Mid-Continent
Airport in Wichita, Kan.
JEFF TUTTLE | REUTERS
U.S.
Attorney Barry Grissom announces charges against an individual arrested
for suspicion of planning to blow up the Mid-Continent Airport in
Wichita, Kan.
.....
The New York Times
Wichita Airport Technician Charged With Terrorist Plot
By DAN FROSCH
Published: December 13, 2013
An avionics technician was charged Friday morning with plotting to
detonate a car bomb at Mid-Continent Airport, in Wichita, Kan., federal
authorities said.
The technician, Terry Lee Loewen, 58, of Wichita, was arrested by F.B.I.
agents as he was transporting what he thought were explosives toward a
secure part of the airport, the United States attorney for Kansas, Barry R. Grissom, said at a news conference. The explosives were inert.
Mr. Loewen, who was employed at the airport, apparently worked alone and
had planned to kill himself in the explosion, Mr. Grissom said. “He
made statements that he was resolved to commit an act of violent jihad
against the government of the United States,” Mr. Grissom said.
According to a complaint filed Friday in Federal District Court in
Wichita, Mr. Loewen had been talking with two undercover F.B.I. agents
over the Internet since early this year. He told the agents that he had
been studying Islam and sharia — Islamic law — and wanted to engage in
jihad on behalf of Al Qaeda, the complaint said.
He continued corresponding with the agents for several months, the
complaint said, outlining ideas for a jihad attack and expressing
admiration for Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical
American-born cleric who was killed in a drone strike in 2011.
Mr. Loewen then agreed, the complaint said, to participate in an
operation in which he would detonate explosives near passenger jets at
the airport during the holiday season.
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