LOS ANGELES -- The head of a militant Islamic prison gang and three others were indicted Wednesday on federal charges of planning terrorist attacks against National Guard facilities, the Israeli Consulate and other Los Angeles-area targets.\nThe four conspired to wage war against the U.S. government through terrorism, kill armed service members and murder foreign officials, among other charges, according to the indictment.\nNamed in the indictment were Levar Haley Washington, 25, Gregory Vernon Patterson, 21, Hammad Riaz Samana, 21, and Kevin James, 29.\nProsecutors contend the plot was orchestrated by Washington, Patterson and Samana at the behest of James, an inmate at the California State Prison-Sacramento who founded the radical group Jamiyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh.\nWashington converted to Islam while serving three years in the prison for a robbery conviction.\nAccording to the indictment, Washington pledged his loyalty to James "until death by martyrdom" and sought to establish a JIS cell outside prison with members with bomb expertise.\nWashington, Patterson and Samana -- who attended the same Inglewood mosque -- allegedly conducted surveillance of National Guard facilities, the Israeli Consulate and several synagogues in the Los Angeles area as well as Internet research on Jewish holidays.\nThe attacks were to be carried out with firearms and other weapons on Jewish holidays, according to the indictment. Patterson allegedly bought a .223-caliber rifle in July.\nTo finance the attacks, prosecutors said, the three robbed a string of gas stations in Los Angeles and Orange counties.\nThe case arose after Washington and Patterson were arrested July 5 by police in Torrance, a suburb southwest of Los Angeles, for investigation of robbing the gas stations.
ing after police who searched \nWashington's apartment in the robbery case said they found a possible target \nlist. Samana, a student originally from Pakistan who lived in Inglewood, was taken into federal custody Aug. 2.\nJames -- known as Shakyh Shahaab Murshid, among other aliases -- founded JIS in 1997 while imprisoned for an attempted-robbery conviction in Los Angeles County, prosecutors said. Washington was paroled in November 2004, around the time authorities say he joined James' group.\nJames then instructed Washington to recruit five members with felony convictions and train them to conduct covert operations; acquire firearms with silencers; and appoint a group member to help produce remotely activated explosives, prosecutors claim.\nThe FBI recently ordered its agents nationwide to conduct "threat assessments" of inmates who may have become radicalized in prison and could commit extremist violence upon their release.
