The defense said the case against him was “greatly exaggerated.” They were referring to the guy who said that he hoped to cause (as he put it in a letter to his wife) “maximum carnage + death” in “the path of Allah.”
“Judge orders that Terry Lee Loewen should remain in jail over alleged bomb plot,” by Tim Potter for the Wichita Eagle, December 20:
A federal judge on Friday ordered that a man charged in an alleged plot to set off a bomb at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport remain in jail until his trial.
The judge’s decision came after a prosecutor argued that Terry Lee Loewen is the “definition of a lone wolf terrorist” and one of his public defenders countered that Loewen deserved to be put on house arrest with electronic monitoring and that the government’s case against him was “greatly exaggerated.”
Loewen, a 58-year-old avionics technician who worked for an aviation business near the airport, was indicted Wednesday on charges of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, attempting to destroy property with an explosive device and attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Loewen appeared in federal court in Wichita on Friday morning in a hearing to determine whether he should remain in jail pending his trial. Prosecutors argued that he posed a risk of fleeing and a risk to public safety.
At the conclusion of Friday”s hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Humphreys said she found clear and convincing evidence that Loewen would pose a danger to the community and a risk of fleeing if he were released before his trial.
Humphreys said “the charges in this case are rare and unusual.” It is uncommon for there to be so much evidence that is based on a defendant’s own words, Humphreys said in her ruling. She said his words held great significance in her determination.
Authorities have said that in repeated communications with undercover FBI employees, Loewen expressed a desire to wage “violent jihad.”
Although Loewen’s public defenders asked that he be put on house arrest with electronic monitoring, Humphreys said she found there were no conditions of release that would assure the community”s safety in the case….
She referred to the allegation that Loewen was intending to cause maximum damage and carnage, and she described the evidence against him as appearing to be “solid, strong, convincing and in some ways overwhelming,” partly based on his own words.
He seemed to have become radicalized, with his own words allegedly showing a drive to commit “violent jihad” and to become a martyr in an attack designed to cause maximum damage, she said….