No bail set for Kansan in plot to target airport

Saturday, December 21, 2013

WICHITA, Kan. - A Kansas airport worker charged with planning a suicide bomb plot at a commercial aircraft terminal poses a public danger and should not be released pending trial, a federal magistrate judge ruled Friday.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Humphreys further found Terry Lee Loewen is a flight risk and that no conditions of release would guarantee his appearance at future hearings.

In announcing her decision, Humphreys said the government’s evidence was convincing and in somerespects overwhelming because of Loewen’s own words during online and in-person conversations with undercover FBI agents.

The judge also formally entered an innocent plea on his behalf, the only plea that can be entered at this early stage of federal court proceedings.

Prosecutors say Loewen, 58, planned a suicide bomb plot that was intended to inflict “maximum carnage” and would have killed and injured hundreds of people. He is charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, attempted use of an explosive device to damage property and attempted material supportto al-Qaida.

Loewen, of Wichita, has been held under a temporary order since his Dec. 13 arrest.

Prosecutors said he tried to get what he believed was a car bomb onto the tarmac at Wichita’s Mid-Continent Airport, where he worked as an avionics technician.

They say the final plan - hatched in an undercover scheme with two FBI agents - was to detonate the device between terminals for maximum casualties during an explosion in which Loewen would die as a martyr.

A trial is set for Feb. 18, and U.S. District Judge Monti Belot will hear the case.

Front Section, Pages 9 on 12/21/2013