How To Catch A Terrorist (As Was Shown In Wichita) -- And, No, The Answer Does Not Include Unskilled Workers Groping Travelers At The Airport
A man was arrested this morning for planning to bomb the Wichita airport. At the Wichita Eagle, Tim Potter writes:
A Wichita man has been charged in federal court with attempting to explode a car bomb at Wichita MC Airport, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom.Terry Lee Loewen, 58, of Wichita, is charged in a criminal complaint field today in federal court in Wichita. With 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.
Loewen, who works as an avionics technician, 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.
He planned to pull the triggers on the explosives himself and to die in the explosion.
Agents arrested Loewen about 5:40 a.m. Friday after he attempted to enter the airport tarmac and deliver a vehicle loaded with what he believed to be high explosives.
Members of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) took him into custody without incident.
As I've written (and written), we stop terrorists long before they get to the airport by using trained intelligence officers operating based on probable cause -- not by having repurposed Cinnabon workers grope everybody's hoohoo and pretend it means something.
The phrase that jumped out at me in this article is “what he believed to be high explosives”. I will withold judgement until more information becomes available, but this sounds very much like previous “terrorist” plots in which law enforcement finds bumbling idiots and convinces them to carry out what they think is an attack.
Factual Interjection at December 13, 2013 12:04 PM
Amy,
I have to wonder... what do you have against Cinnabon workers? I don't think Cinnabon would hire most TSA employees.
Shannon M. Howell at December 13, 2013 12:20 PM
Flying through O'Hare recently I witnessed the local TSA Gropenfuhrer -- rat-faced skinny bastard with matching mustache -- yelling instructions at the line of passengers.
He was practically splooging himself in delight. "Power! Ahahahaha! At last I'll prove to my woodshop teacher it's safe to let me use the band saw!"
They're a sad, sad lot.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at December 13, 2013 12:49 PM
I've been to Saul Goodman's Cinnabon, I think he's skimming about 15% of the sugar right off the top.
jerry at December 13, 2013 1:20 PM
Gog, you have a beautiful way with words. I will be incorporating "Gropenfuhrer" into my vocabulary.
Elle at December 14, 2013 12:45 AM
The thing to note here is that TSA screening would not have caught this guy. As an employee of a company that has a facility on the airport, he had access that bypassed the TSA grope stations.
And I'm waiting to hear more about what the motive was... he doesn't seem to fit the usual profiles.
Cousin Dave at December 16, 2013 6:51 AM
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