Friday, December 20, 2013

Muslim indicted for attempting to explode car bomb at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport

Loewen.jpeg
Loewen said that he hoped to cause (as he put it in a letter to his wife) “maximum carnage + death.” He wanted this to be yet another jihad mass murder attack on American soil, in which he would be, as he wrote in the same letter, “martyred in the path of Allah.” He said that he wanted to “commit an act of violent jihad on behalf of al Qaeda” against the United States. Loewen also freely acknowledged that he would be classified as an Islamic “extremist”: “Let me preface the bottom line by saying I have become ‘radicalized’ in the strongest sense of the word, and I don’t feel Allah wants me any other way.”


In the same vein, he expressed frustration with Muslims who didn’t see the jihad imperative as he did: “I don’t understand how you can read the Qur’an and the sunnah of the Prophet (saw) and not understand that jihad and the implementation of Sharia is absolutely demanded of all the Muslim Ummah. I feel so guilt-ridden sometimes for knowing what’s required of me but yet doing little or nothing to make it happen. I love my Muslim brothers and sisters, whether they agree with me or not, it’s just hard to deal with the denial that some of them appear to be going through.”
 
"Federal Grand Jury Returns Indictment Charging Wichitan with Planning Airport Bombing," from the FBI, December 18 (thanks to Pamela Geller):
KANSAS CITY, KS—A federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging a Wichita man with attempting to explode a car bomb at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said today. Terry Loewen, 58, Wichita, Kansas, initially was charged in a criminal complaint filed December 13 in U.S. District Court. On Wednesday, a federal grand jury reviewed the evidence and returned an indictment against Loewen. The charges in the indictment are identical to the charges in the complaint filed last week: one count of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, one count of attempting to damage property by means of an explosive, and one count of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
The crimes are alleged to have occurred December 13 at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport in Wichita. Loewen was arrested about 5:40 a.m. December 13 at the Wichita airport, where he is alleged to have attempted to detonate a car bomb.
If convicted, Lowen faces a maximum penalty of life in prison on the charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, not less than five years and not more than 20 years on the charge of attempting to use an explosive to damage property, and a maximum penalty of 15 years on the charge of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization
The investigation was conducted by the Wichita FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, which includes members from the FBI, Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office, and Kansas Highway Patrol. Assisting with the investigation were the FBI Kansas City Division, the Transportation Security Administration, the Wichita Airport Authority, and the Wichita Police Department. The case is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Smith and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tony Mattivi and by prosecutors from the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

No comments: