A Kansas man who has plead guilty to trying to use a weapon of mass destruction is set to be sentenced on Monday. Judge Monti Belot of the U.S. District said that if Terry L. Loewen rejects the plea, he can withdraw it, but he is "almost certain" that he will accept the 60-year-old man's proposed sentence of 20 years.
Loewen started his way into terrorism in December 2013 when he attempted to bring in a huge number of explosives using a van to the tarmac located in a Wichita airport. Prosecutors said that Loewen wanted to cause "maximum carnage" when he ends dead as a martyr, as previously reported by HNGN,
"I expect to be called a terrorist (which I am), a psychopath, and a homicidal maniac," said in a letter that was found in his home by investigators, ABC News reported.
Two undercover agents figured Loewen's plan out by communicating and scheming with him. The Kansas man was then with a facility in Hawker Beechcraft located in Mid-Continent Airport, now Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport, where he worked as an avionics technician. He tried using his employee badge to bring in fake bombs into the tarmac which was detected on the card reader, according to The Greenfield Reporter,
Karen Greenberg of the Center on National Security at Fordham Law School said that the prison term of 20 years is considered to be greater than the average of 18 years for cases such as terrorism undercover operations.
"There is something about this case which really stands out, which is the suicide part of it. We don't see a lot of it," she said, The Star Tribune reported,
Uncovered conversations between the Kansas man and the agents reveal that he has read materials written by Anwar al-Awlaki, the leader who inspired al-Qaeda that was killed by a U.S. drone in Yemen last 2011.
Out of 462 cases of terrorism cases in the U.S., 320 had convictions, 31 were acquitted or dismissed cases and 111 have yet to be solved.
