Homegrown Terror Plot Began Behind Bars

Two Former Convicts Plead Guilty After Conspiring To Launch Jihad-Style Attacks Against U.S.

(AP)  Two men accused of plotting behind prison walls to launch jihad-style attacks on military sites, synagogues and other targets in 2005 pleaded guilty Friday to conspiring to levy war against the United States.

Kevin James, 31, and Levar Haley Washington, 28, entered their pleas in separate appearances before U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney. Washington also pleaded guilty to using a firearm to further the conspiracy. Prosecutors said he used a shotgun to rob a Torrance gas station on July 4, 2005.

James faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced March 31. Washington faces up to 20 years in prison on the conspiracy charge and five years to life for the firearms offense when he is sentenced April 28.

Authorities say James, Washington and two others were part of a California prison gang cell of radical Muslims that planned the attacks in the Los Angeles area.

"Homegrown terrorism remains a grave concern to the security of our country, and this cell was closer to going operational at the time than anyone since 9/11," Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Michael Downing told reporters at a news conference after the two men entered their pleas.

Police uncovered the plot in July 2005 while investigating a string of gas station robberies that authorities say were committed to finance the attacks. Torrance Police Chief John Neu told reporters at the news conference that authorities linked about 10 holdups to the plot.

The plotters were within weeks of being able to carry out an attack, officials said, when they were discovered about two months before the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur.

Washington and James, who arrived in court in chains and prison jumpsuits, said little during their separate hearings, answering Carney's questions with monosyllabic responses. Both men wore goatees and Washington's face was covered in tattoos.

Washington's attorney, Ellen Barry, said outside court that her client decided it was "in his best interests" to plead guilty. James' attorney, Robert Carlin, declined to comment.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Staples said as a result of the plea agreement James' maximum possible sentence was reduced from 25 years to 20. U.S attorney spokesman Thom Mrozek said prosecutors would recommend an 18-year sentence for James and 25 years for Washington.

Also indicted in the case were Gregory Vernon Patterson and Hammad Riaz Samana. All but Samana, a Pakistani national, are American-born Muslim converts.

Patterson and Samana are charged with conspiracy to levy war against the U.S. government through terrorism, conspiracy to possess and discharge firearms in a violent crime, conspiracy to kill members of the U.S. government uniformed services and conspiracy to kill foreign officials. Patterson is also charged with a robbery count and using a firearm in a violent crime.

U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien said Samana has been declared mentally unfit to stand trial and is undergoing psychiatric care at a federal prison facility. Patterson is expected to plead guilty to a terrorism conspiracy charge on Monday.

Prosecutors say the plot was orchestrated by Washington, Patterson and Samana at the behest of James, a California State Prison, Sacramento, inmate who founded the radical group Jamiyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh, or JIS.

Washington converted to Islam while imprisoned with James, then looked to recruit other members of the group, authorities said. Neu said Patterson and Samana were recruited in part because they had no criminal records and could acquire weapons without suspicion.

James preached that JIS members should target for violent attack any enemies of Islam or "infidels," including the U.S. government and any supporters of Israel, according to court documents.

He also created a document he called the "JIS Protocol," which advocated the establishment of an Islamic caliphate in the U.S. that followed Shariah law, or Islamic law.

"Sit back, build and attack!" prosecutors say James wrote in his document. "Our obvious targets being the Western forces of the U.S. and their ... society."

James spelled out in a separate document that JIS members must learn Arabic, acquire two pistols with silencers, learn bomb-making and become "legitimate."

"Acquire identification, drivers license ... keep regular contact with your parole agent," prosecutors say James wrote. "Your dress code must not bring attention. ... We have work to do."

Prosecutors assert that James also prepared a press release that the men planned to send out after an attack.

"This incident is the first in a series of incidents to come in a plight to defend and propagate traditional Islam in its purity," James allegedly wrote. "We are not extremists, radicals, or terrorists. We are only servants of Allah."

[libsluvsuvs]

That is alway the same anwser yer say love it or leave..Go where when yer an American unhappy with his/her nation when he/she is poor...anwswer that when yer know full well no other nation wants poor and those with healtl issues who must ask fo

Posted by MichelleM99 at 05:25 PM : Dec 16, 2007
+ report abuse

*****

meaning NOBODY WANTS YOUR WHINNY ARSE..

[rushman71]

Oh, I thought they were talking about "homegrown terror POT"!!! Man, that would have been some good shiiit!!!

[samthetvcat]

"we probably agree overall. I would not throw all Muslims in jail, or monitor all, but just like WWII we have an identifiable enemy, fanatical Islam terrorists. So, any indication of leaning that way- say trips to Pakistan to visit the countryside ? or hosting web sites at UCI calling for destruction of free speech by students, etc. calls for the FBI to do its job and protect us. I would bug the hell out of such radical groups. I would monitor what was being said in certain mosques. But i would not round up all Muslims, just because."
hamiltongrad

Ha ha maybe there''s not so much difference between left and right after all - one difference though mihgt be that most of us on the left would prefer that law enforcement obtain warrants first. The standards pretty low, so under most circumstances it shouldn''t be a problem. Plus it would help weed out the non-threats.

Those books sound pretty interesting, but I''m not that much of an intellectual - also I waste too much time watching silly shows like Dancing With The Stars. LOL :o. But that''s why I like coming to the boards and finding out all the other stuff that other ppl know - lots of interesting ideas and opinions and knowledge. I''ll have to see if there''s a Cliffs Notes at Amazon in between commercials someday (lol)

[ericagain]

http://stat.squarespace.com/further-reading/

Terrorists in Prison. Read it.

[michellem99-2009]

for help and yes I am a poster who want anwers,

[michellem99-2009]

That is alway the same anwser yer say love it or leave..Go where when yer an American unhappy with his/her nation when he/she is poor...anwswer that when yer know full well no other nation wants poor and those with healtl issues who must ask fo

[samthetvcat]

"Although conservative, I like Barak Obama as well, because he seems like a very decent, smart and will bring new ideas."

Posted by hamiltongrad

Although liberal, I see those qualities in Huckabee too - I don''t subscribe to his textualist interpretation of the bible, but I feel like in terms of the big issues he''d be guided to make very decent, smart, fresh ideas too. Yay, we agree for once!!! :)

[j-whitman]

I think it''s probably more like these idiots got tired of our prison system & wanted to go someplace better, like nice warm GITMO

[michellem99-2009]

The prisom systems are not working as they should.
The Govt and its leaders are not working as they should.
We need to get back to the contution as the framers/Fouding Fathers meant it to be.
I feel they be appalled at the shape of this nation.
This we oaught not...
Tell other nations what to do and how to do it.
Fight and be stationed in other nations.
Never send military and other aid to other nations.
Have govt schools.
Send jobs out of nation.
We the people mean the Ammerican people.
We must not become a police state.
It means it is time to take back our nation as the Fathers set it up in 1776. It does not mean we must give up our freedoms and it does not mean we have to give up our computers.
It does mean a complete change in the way the govt is run. It does mean our troops are stationed in America. It does mean health care free to Americans,
It does mean what yer are unwilling to do support America as she should be..Not a nation selling us out.It means sep of church and state. It means the basics for Americans and not illgals getting everything.

[samthetvcat]

pt 1
hamiltongrad, I think we can agree on that to a SOME extent . . . probably you would look at them with more of an eye towards wanting to prosecute them (?) Whereas I would say the system we have now of monitoring people IF we have credible evidence of illegal activity is probably the best way to go.

Did you notice that link CBS posted above to the story "Jury Deadlocks In Homegrown Terror Trial"? I guess people aren''t willing to prosecute based on mere ''plans'' that were found through wiretapping. So that might be one reason your plan might not work in practice (unless Shrub whisks them away to Guantanamo in the dark of the night).

[samthetvcat]

pt 2
One ''tactic'' that hasn''t been mentioned is the preventative measure of reaching out to people and drawing them back into society rather than ostracizing them further. Like if people agree that terrorism is about power and control rather than ideology (much like how rape isn''t about ***), then isn''t tolerance and inclusion the antitode rather than vilification?

The common thread of the mall shooters and the ex-convicts is that they were all disenfranchised and had little hope of obtaining the American Dream - no job, no money, (no girl), few career prospects, little status, etc. These grand ideas say ''look at me I do have the power to affect peoples'' lives'' - society maybe isn''t doing a good job of showing that everybody IS important and CAN make a difference when we don''t help at-risk people get back their dignity. People that had setbacks in high-school, those with substance issues, those who were drawn into a life of crime, war refugees.

Personally that''s why I like Barack because he has recognized the potential for growth of this group and has plans to reach out. He was also willing to go against the tide and speak out against the Iraq war when everybody else thought oooh, maybe better safe than sorry let''s ATTACK because I want to be seen as ''tough''. Like just because we try to gain influence at the grassroots level doesn''t mean we''re not willing to be proactive with investigations and willing to attack if that''s called for.

[michellem99-2009]

The dumbing of American citizens.
Hatred of the constution.
The nasty side of the Christian Right.
Bullies in American power.
Forcing other nations to believe lies.
Helplessness of the people and freedoms being robbed from.
Forced to think one way.
Forced to do one way.

[samthetvcat]

PS Like we need to continue to remain vigilant, but not get panicky and overreact with costly and unnecessary ideas. It takes something like $30,000 a year to keep an individual incarcerated for a year. Assuming there''s say a million muslims (I have no idea what the actual number is), that would mean your idea would cost something like $30 billion to implement A YEAR when the current system is already doing the job (that''s assuming Shrub was able to find some legal ''loophole'' which allowed him to ignore the Constitution . . . probably not a problem I guess . . . )

[samthetvcat]

"NO home grown or otherwise SABOTAuge on American soil during all of WWII !!"
Posted by Hamiltongrad

First off, these guys weren''t caught because of wiretaps or mail intercepts so your idea isn''t even relevant to the piece.

Second off, there haven''t been any home-grown islamist-inspired terrorist attacks since the beginning of the Iraq war either, so on this point isn''t your idea irrelevant too?

I can understand that you feel scared . . . scared to die I guess? I think we all are, and if there were no opportunities cost associated with indulging our collective and very understandable fear then that''d be a different situation. Sometimes what it takes to make us stronger can be counterintuitive - like instead of indulging our fears which has been proven to make us weaker because it''s caused us to make bad decisions which have thrown money down the drain, we need to move forward . . . life goes on . . .

[samthetvcat]

"How come we hear about this only now ??

Prior to WWII, the FBI intercepted mail and tap telephones on many hundred suspected good "German Amerians" in the mid west esp. And once the war started they went straight to jail for the duration, no trail, no questions or ACLU. There were no- I repeat - NO home grown or otherwise SABOTAuge on American soil during all of WWII !! The FBI was proud of this. When an enemy is at home, looks like you and talks like you, the good people have an obligation to protect their children. Thank God they did !!"
Posted by Hamiltongrad

Wasn''t it the Japanese Americans? And the Supreme Court''s already held that it''s unconstitutional to deprive individuals on US soil of their liberty solely on the basis of race (religion in this case). That''s what makes us different from the Nazis . . .

[hamiltongrad]

How come we hear about this only now ??

Prior to WWII, the FBI intercepted mail and tap telephones on many hundred suspected good "German Amerians" in the mid west esp. And once the war started they went straight to jail for the duration, no trail, no questions or ACLU. There were no- I repeat - NO home grown or otherwise SABOTAuge on American soil during all of WWII !! The FBI was proud of this. When an enemy is at home, looks like you and talks like you, the good people have an obligation to protect their children. Thank God they did !!

[samthetvcat]

"The plotters were within weeks of being able to carry out an attack"

What were their targets? Had they acquired bomb-making materials yet? It''s great that these guys got caught, and while we''re never going to be able to stop all crime from happening it seems like these home-grown ''terrorist conspiracies'' are tremendously hard to implement and are therefore much easier to stop while in the planning stages, don''t you think?

They''ve been tripped up by talking too loud at a video store or whatever, and by losing their cellphones, or by staking out landmarks or by trying to acquire bomb-making materials . . . as far as home-grown threats go, those mall shooter kids seem like more of a threat because they act alone.

I think if Obama or Huckabee wins the election next year, maybe part of the message''ll be that even though there''s always the danger of another strike we''re ready as a nation to move on from 9/11 . . . enough with the fear-mongering! It''s dragging us down on so many levels!

[bennyblack1]

swwils;
You have no earthly idea what the differences between Islam and Christianity are, do you?

[toolmangler-2009]

Feely will be by in a bit and tell us that these are Bushy_babys people that ''Volunteered'' to go to prison so they could set up this ''cell''. wait for it!!

[j-whitman]

underdogus,,,, That''s funny --- The only ones who have fallen for the "Fear" are the right wing conservative believers.