The 2005 Los Angeles bomb plot was a 2005 effort by a group of ex-convicts calling themselves '' Jamiyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh'' to bomb several military bases, a number of synagogues, and an Israeli consulate in California.
On 31 August 2005, Kevin James and three other men were indicted on terrorism charges related to conspiracy to attack military facilities in the Los Angeles area and of attempting to fund their campaign by robbing gas stations in Southern California over the previous three months. Kevin James was accused of founding a radical Islamic group called J.I.S (Jam’iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheehجمعية الإسلام الصحيح , Arabic for "Assembly of Authentic
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
") from his cell in
Folsom Prison
Folsom State Prison (FSP) is a California State Prison in Folsom, California, U.S., approximately northeast of the state capital of Sacramento, California, Sacramento. It is one of 34 adult institutions operated by the California Department of ...
in California, and of recruiting fellow inmates to join his mission to target for violent attack so-called enemies of Islam or "infidels".
The announcement of the arrests was made by the Attorney-General
Alberto Gonzales in the presence of the director of the FBI
Robert Mueller in Washington D.C.
Robert Mueller mentioned the incident in a "Major Executive Speech" in June 2006 on the day that the
2006 Sears Tower plot was announced.
The Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI outlined the case in his congressional testimony in September 2006.
Background
The plot is one in a series of terrorist-related attacks and failed attacks by Muslims on military installations in the United States, including the
2009 New York terrorism plot, the
2007 Fort Dix attack plot
The 2007 Fort Dix attack plot involved a group of six radicalized individuals who were found guilty of conspiring to stage an attack against U.S. Military personnel stationed at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
The men were arrested by the Federal Bureau ...
, the
2009 Little Rock recruiting office shooting, and the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
on the Pentagon.
Suspects
* Kevin James, founded J.I.S. (Jam’iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh) in 2004 while in prison, recruiting fellow inmates, and then others after his release in December 2004.
* Levar Haley Washington, Muslim convert, a U.S. national; arrested 5 July for armed robbery.
* Gregory Vernon Patterson, a U.S. national; purchased a .223-caliber rifle and arrested 5 July for armed robbery.
* Hammad Riaz Samana, a lawful permanent U.S. resident originally from Pakistan; allegedly trained with firearms; arrested 2 August.
Several of the suspects formed a group called ''Jam’iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh'' from inside a California state prison
[New York Times]
Imams Reject Talk That Islam Radicalizes Inmates
, DANIEL J. WAKIN, May 23, 2009. About a month later, Washington was released from prison and recruited Patterson and Samana, neither of whom had a criminal record, at an Inglewood mosque.
Conviction
On 14 December 2007, Kevin James pleaded guilty to "conspiracy to levy war against the United States through terrorism" and faces up to 20 years in federal prison. Levar Washington also pleaded guilty to the same in addition to a weapons charge and could get 25.
Gregory Patterson is expected to accept a plea deal, and Hammad Samana is currently undergoing psychiatric treatment.
In an interview with the prosecutor, the reporter remarked that "the cell appears to have been remarkably indiscreet about committing plans to paper. They even left the text of a press release Mr. James had written for use once they committed a successful attack. And one of the ringleaders, James, was in prison the whole time."
Documents such as these formed the basis of the evidence, since the group hadn't gotten to the point of gathering materials to make explosives.
A 2011
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
report claimed some of the people associated with this case were imprisoned in a highly restrictive
Communication Management Unit
A communications management unit (CMU) is a type of self-contained group within a facility in the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons that severely restricts, manages and monitors all outside communication (telephone, mail, visitation) of inmat ...
.
[
]
See also
*Islamic extremism in the United States
Islamic extremism in the United States comprises all forms of Islamic extremism occurring within the United States. Islamic extremism is an adherence to a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam, potentially including the promotion of violence t ...
*Conversion to Islam in prisons
Conversion to Islam in prisons refers to the modern phenomenon seen in the Western world of a statistically high incidence of incarcerated criminal non-Muslims converting to Islam while in the prison system. In the decade preceding 2014, the num ...
* 2009 Little Rock military recruiting office shooting – al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula-inspired attack by Yemen-trained ''jihad
Jihad (; ar, جهاد, jihād ) is an Arabic word which literally means "striving" or "struggling", especially with a praiseworthy aim. In an Islamic context, it can refer to almost any effort to make personal and social life conform with Go ...
i''
* 2009 Bronx terrorism plot – a plot by four black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...
American Muslim men to shoot down military airplanes flying out of an Air National Guard
The Air National Guard (ANG), also known as the Air Guard, is a federal military reserve force of the United States Air Force, as well as the air militia of each U.S. state, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the ter ...
base and blow up two synagogues
A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of wors ...
* 2011 Manhattan terrorism plot – an effort by two Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
Arab-Americans
Arab Americans ( ar, عَرَبٌ أَمْرِيكِا or ) are Americans of Arab ancestry. Arab Americans trace ancestry to any of the various waves of immigrants of the countries comprising the Arab World.
According to the Arab American Ins ...
to bomb a synagogue
*List of attacks on Jewish institutions in the United States
This is a list of violent attacks and failed attack plots targeting Jewish institutions in the United States.
* 1957 – November 11: A bomb at Temple Beth-El in Birmingham, Alabama was discovered before it exploded.Kellman, George. "ANTI-JEWISH ...
References
[DATA & GRAPHICS: Population Of The Communications Management Units]
, Margot Williams and Alyson Hurt, NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
, 3-3-11, retrieved 2011 03 04 from npr.org
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Los Angeles Bomb Plot
Antisemitism in California
Explosions in 2005
Terrorist incidents in the United States in 2005
Islamic terrorism in California
Failed terrorist attempts in the United States
Antisemitic attacks and incidents in the United States
2005 crimes in the United States
Terrorist incidents in Los Angeles
Bomb plot
A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the Exothermic process, exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-t ...