One doesn’t typically think of Wichita as a hotbed of Islamic radicalism, but 58-year-old Terry Loewen is being charged today with attempting to set off explosives this morning at the city’s Mid-Continent Airport, where he worked as a technician. Fortunately, as is nearly always the case with these kinds of things, Loewen’s accomplices were FBI agents from the start. Loewen, who was motivated by his desire to perform jihad against the United States, did realize that a setup was a possibility, as demonstrated by his online chats with an undercover agent. But he ultimately decided that this time, the mysterious stranger on the Internet encouraging him to commit acts of terror was probably legit.
*This post originally referred to Wichita as the capital of Kansas because I did not pay attention in school and never think about Kansas.
