A Kansas man was arrested on Friday for apparently plotting a suicide bombing at the Wichita Mid-Continent Airport. Reports said the man wanted to detonate a car bomb.
It is unclear when the man–identified as Terry Lee Lowen–allegedly wanted to set off the bomb, and got bomb parts from FBI informants. Undercover FBI agents dealt with the suspect and he was under constant surveillance the whole time.
He wanted to trigger a bomb blast and “die in the explosion as a martyr,” said Michael Kaste, the U.S. Attorney in a press conference.
The bomb was inert and Lowen was arrested at the airport on Friday morning.
The suspect, according to NBC sources, is ”an older white man,” who apparently read Islamist material on the Internet and became “radicalized.”
The Topeka Capital-Journal said charges were filed against a man who was arrested on Friday morning.
The U.S. Attorney’s office and the FBI are describing the arrest as a “a national security matter,” NBC affiliate KSN reported. The FBI will make an announcement about the arrest later in the day.