Two men plead guilty to terrorism charges

Two members of a prison-based Islamic terrorist cell that authorities say was poised to attack military sites, synagogues and other targets across Southern California pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to conspiring to wage war against the United States.

The plot, which police stumbled upon during a routine investigation into a gas station holdup, represented one of the most realistic terrorism threats on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001, experts said. The case also raised concerns about whether the country’s prisons could serve as recruiting centers for Islamic extremists.

As the defendants entered their pleas, prosecutors made public several documents detailing the group’s operations. One handwritten paper, titled “Modes of Attack,” includes a list of National Guard facilities, Army recruiting centers and something referred to as the “camp site of Zion.”

Another two-page document, labeled “Blueprint 2005,” set out eight tasks to be accomplished in furtherance of the plot. “We will need bombs that can be activated from a distance,” one entry read. “Acquire two weapons (pistols) with silencers,” read another.

Kevin Lamar James and Levar Haney Washington, members of the homegrown radical Islamic organization dubbed JIS, entered guilty pleas in front of U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney in federal court in Santa Ana, Calif.

James, who founded the group while in state prison in 1997, recruited Washington years later when they were both prisoners at New Folsom Prison. After his release in 2004, Washington recruited Gregory Patterson, with whom he committed a string of gas station robberies to fund the group’s planned attacks, authorities said.

The plot was uncovered after Torrance, Calif., police investigating a gas station robbery in 2005 identified Washington and Patterson as suspects and obtained a search warrant for their South Los Angeles apartment.

The unsuspecting officers found jihadist documents, including a lengthy manifesto and a list of potential targets in the Los Angeles area. Days later, in a search of James’ prison cell, authorities found a draft of a statement that was to be released to the media in the wake of the group’s first fatal attack.

The case mushroomed into a terrorism probe involving multiple local and federal agencies, including the FBI.

Thomas P. O’Brien, the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, said the group was in the advanced stages of planning when the plot began to unravel.