Levar Washington
Posted on 08/16/2005 6:40:27 PM PDT by Ooh-Ah
A terrorist plot to attack military and Jewish sites in the Los Angeles area this coming Sept. 11 was devised inside a cell at the New Folsom State Prison, a maximum-security prison outside Sacramento, Calif.
Law enforcement officials told ABC News that Peter Martinez, a former Oakland street gang member, and his cellmate Kevin James organized the plot and recruited as many as 13 other inmates in a jihad against the United States. The two inmates have since been placed in special confinement, according to officials.
"Al Qaeda recruits in prisons. They really do," said Edward Caden, a retired prison administrator in California. "Prisons are a prime, prime target for terrorist recruiting. It is a ripe population."
The plot, which called for dozens of casualties as part of a holy war against the United States, was foiled after Levar Washington, a former inmate at the Folsom Prison, and his accomplice were arrested for a string of gas station robberies.
Washington had entered prison a convicted thief and left as a militant black Muslim who had sworn allegiance to a violent jihad, according to law enforcement authorities.
Intent to 'Kill Everyone'
The FBI says Washington, after being released late last year, started to plan attacks on synagogues and a military recruiting center in Santa Monica, Calif.
A law enforcement report obtained by ABC News says the attacks were to take place on Sept. 11, and "the intent was to kill everyone at the target."
"He regarded Osama bin Laden very highly," claimed one man who wished to remain anonymous for fear of other cell members still at large. He said Washington tried to recruit him and others in Los Angeles to join the terror group.
"He really believed that the Muslim world is majorly oppressed right now," continued the attempted recruit, "and their only way out is to fight jihad by harming innocent people."
The terror plot was thwarted when Washington and his accomplice were apprehended. Although he had no previous criminal record, Washington's accomplice was in the midst of the 15-day waiting period to buy a high-powered rifle, according to police. The Imam of a Los Angeles mosque that Washington attended said he was surprised by the level of hatred for America that Washington had developed in prison.
"It strikes me as pretty strange that a person would come out full of anger and frustration and channel his direction of frustration at this particular angle," Imam Kharsay said.
NBC4 Investigation: Possible Terror Evidence In Robbery Probe
During the raid to arrest two robbery suspects at a local apartment, police said officers uncovered details of a possible terrorist cell, with alleged plans for an attack in the Southland.
In an exclusive investigation, Channel 4 News has learned more about the two suspects under investigation by the FBI's counter terrorism task force and an alleged plot that targeted several prominent locations in the Los Angeles area.
ANA GARCIA (REPORTER): Is it possible that an Islamic prison gang with possible links to Middle Eastern operatives were planning to blow up these targets?
# El Al Airlines at LAX
# Israeli Consulate On Wilshire Boulevard
# Westside Jewish Synagogues
# California National Guard Armories
LT. COMMANDER ERIC GRIMM, CALIFORNIA NATIONAL GUARD: We put those three armories on a heightened state of security.
GARCIA: Armories in West LA, Manhattan Beach and Torrance. And U.S. Army recruiting centers, including Long Beach, Torrance and Harbor City.
GRIMM: There was a robbery in Torrance, and ... the persons arrested by the local police department made an allegation or a threat against the California National Guard, and they specifically named three armories.
GARCIA: Gregory Patterson, 21, and Levar Washington, 25, are being held on a total of $3 million bail, charged with holding up at least 10 gas stations and convenience stores in the South Bay.
But why are Patterson and Washington of interest to the FBI's counter terrorism unit?
RAFAT A. SALIB, ARMED ROBBERY VICIM: Police took the tape.
GARCIA: Salib, a Chevron gas station owner, says investigators took the surveillance tape of the hold-up at his Crenshaw Boulevard market.
SALIB: (The) guy came in about 10:30 (with a) ski mask on (his) face ... (and) unbelieveable, it's a machine gun, a long machine gun.
GARCIA: According to a senior official familiar with the case, when police searched Washington's apartment on West 27th Street, looking for evidence of the robberies, they instead found a list of targets and notes of an operation which detailed a need for cash, explosives, weapons, even remote control devices. Our informant tells us it was all part of a plot to blow up targets in the Los Angeles area. Rabbi Marvin Hier confirms an increased police presence at synagogues.
RABBI MARVIN HIER, SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER: Our assumption was, it is directly linked to the event the arrest of these two people in Torrance.
GARCIA: But who are Patterson and Washington? A local police source says Gregory Patterson may have worked at LAX; the airport was on the list of targets. LAX officials say they the FBI has asked them not to comment.
And what about Levar Washington? According to court records, Washington is a former member of the Rolling 60 Crips gang and even had their tattoo on his forehead. He was sentenced to six years in prison for assault with a deadly weapon, robbery and street terrorism . Washington was housed at four different California prisons. Records show he entered as a Christian, but published reports say he is now a disciple of Islam.
A source close to the investigation says Washington and Patterson may be linked to a wider plot involving a prison-based gang called "Jimiyat Islam Sahid" or JIS. According to gang experts, JIS recruits former gang members such as the Crips in prisons such as Folsom, where Washington served time.
HIER: People are converted to extremists while they are serving in prison.
GARCIA: According to an expert close to the case, JIS was formed in the mid-'90s and is allegedly linked to Middle Eastern operatives in Pakistan and Tunisia.
HIER: That is very frightening.
GARCIA: El Al airlines confirms their security department knew about the threat.
Gregory Patterson's attorney says his client in no way intended to take aggressive action against his country.
Patterson's mother told a local newspaper her son has never done anything wrong. He was an honors student and Christian who recently converted to Islam.
We found a 1999 handwritten note from Washington's mother, Debra, in court records. She wrote to the judge at the time that her son had remorse, that he had changed tremendously and promised he would not get into trouble again.
We want to be clear. Gregory Patterson and Levar Washington have been charged only with robbery, and they have pleaded not guilty.
http://tinyurl.com/abykx
Levar Washington
Was attack on consulate in LA thwarted?
Counterterrorism officials in Los Angeles investigating possibility that two men recently arrested in a string of robberies may have been part of a local group of extremists with ties to prison or street gangs that planned to attack the Israeli consulate, two synagogues
By Yitzhak Benhorin
LOS ANGELES - Counter-terrorism officials in Los Angeles are investigating the possibility that two men recently arrested in a string of robberies may have been part of a local group of extremists with ties to prison or street gangs that planned to attack the Israeli
consulate and two synagogues, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.
Local law enforcement officials said materials recovered at the South Los Angeles apartment of one robbery suspect, Levar Haney Washington, 25, suggest that an attack might have been planned at any of nearly two dozen addresses, including National Guard recruiting facilities, two synagogues and a building believed to be the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles.
During an extensive search of Washington's apartment last week, authorities said they found no explosives or bomb-making materials, but did recover some bulletproof vests and undisclosed "jihadist" materials not readily available via the Internet or other public sources, as well as the list of addresses that appeared to be unlikely targets for a simple robbery.
Washington, a Rollin' 60s gang member who was convicted in Orange County in 1999 of assault with a deadly weapon, robbery and belonging to a street gang, converted to Islam in prison. His alleged accomplice, Gregory Vernon Patterson, 21, who has no criminal record, is believed to be a more recent convert.
For several years, the FBI and other federal agencies have been investigating prison gangs to determine what role, if any, they are playing in converting prisoners to radical interpretations of Islam.
Investigation still in its early stages
Raising investigators' suspicions was their discovery that Patterson, until recently, worked at a duty-free gift shop at Los Angeles International Airport's Tom Bradley International Terminal, where another possible target on the list, El Al Israel Airlines, has its ticket counter.
Patterson, who worked at the airport shop for about six months, left the job early this year. Sources said there was no evidence that he was at the airport to survey it as a possible target.
Instead, they said they are investigating his time at LAX because the airport has long been known as a terrorist target and the El Al ticket counter was the site of a July 4, 2002, rampage in which an Egyptian immigrant shot and killed two bystanders.
A week after the FBI confirmed that its Joint Terrorism Task Force was investigating the two Muslim converts for possible links to extremism, authorities emphasized Thursday that the fast-moving investigation was still in its early stages.
'A good young man'
At the same time, several sources said there is a possibility that others could be arrested in the case. Unlike the ongoing federal investigation in Lodi, Calif., where authorities suspect at least two individuals supported terrorism by attending overseas training camps, the probe of Washington and Patterson is specifically aimed at determining whether they were involved in plotting a terrorist act, law enforcement officials said.
Last week, Torrance police arrested Washington and Patterson in connection with a string of gas station robberies from May 30 to July 3. The arrests occurred during a stakeout by detectives, and subsequently led to a search of Washington's apartment on West 27th Street.
There, authorities said, they discovered what was described as "jihadist" literature, as well as documents with the addresses of numerous sites, including National Guard locations and the "Consulate of Zion." Authorities surmise that is a reference to Israel's consulate in Los Angeles, since the list allegedly found in Washington's apartment was of Southern California locations.
Last week, a California National Guard spokesman confirmed that officials there had been notified of potential threats to their facilities.
Calls to the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles seeking comment were not returned Thursday.
On Thursday, the attorney for Patterson said that although he knew about the federal investigation by the anti-terrorist task force, he had not been presented with any specific allegations by the FBI or any other agency against his client.
"I am well aware there is a federal investigation going on," said Winston McKesson, Patterson's lawyer. "And I really believe that once this investigation is complete, it will be crystal clear … that my client was not involved in any terrorist plot.
"He is a good young man, an honor student who has never been associated with any gangs. His parents are both upstanding members of the community and this is all a shock to them."
Washington's attorney, Deputy Alternate Public Defender Jerome Haig, also said he had not received any indication that his client will be charged with crimes other than the robberies.
http://tinyurl.com/df2pj
Calif. National Guard Warned in Terror Probe
By Ian Gregor, The Associated Press
Published: July 18, 2005
Israeli Consulate and California National Guard facilities are on a list of possible terror targets police say they came across while investigating a string of robberies.
“We’re very concerned about it,” said Maj. Jon Siepmann, the California National Guard’s deputy director of communications. “There was evidence that an attack was at least being planned.”
The list, which police found while searching the home of a man arrested last week in connection with a series of gas station robberies in the south Santa Monica Bay area, included three National Guard facilities in the greater Los Angeles area, Siepmann said Friday.
“In response to this, we’ve briefed our personnel on the potential threat and we’ve reviewed security procedures at these facilities as well as other facilities in the area to ensure they are appropriate to counter the threat,” Siepmann said. He declined to specify which facilities were targeted.
Yariv Ovadia, the Israeli consul for communications and public affairs, declined to discuss details of the possible threat or say whether the consulate tightened security.
“We were notified of the case ... that the Israeli Consulate is part of the list of the suspected targets,” he said.
Siepmann said the National Guard has strong security measures in place because its soldiers have been involved in anti-terror operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Asia. About 12,000 of the California Guard’s 20,000 soldiers have been mobilized and deployed since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, he said.
The warnings followed the July 5 arrests by Torrance police of Gregory Vernon Patterson, 21, of Gardena, and Levar Haney Washington, 25, of Los Angeles, for investigation of robbery. Both men pleaded not guilty.
FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller confirmed last week that the agency’s Joint Terrorism Task Force was investigating the case, but declined to provide further details.
Patterson and Washington have not been charged with any federal crimes.
Patterson’s attorney, Winston McKesson, described his client as an honor student from a “solid” middle class background with no gang affiliation.
“I believe once the investigation is complete it will be abundantly clear that my client has no part in a terrorist plot,” McKesson said.
Washington’s attorney, Jerome Haig, did not immediately return a call for comment Friday.
Patterson’s mother, Abbie Patterson, has described her son as an “idealistic young man” and Christian who recently converted to Islam. She said he met Washington about six months ago.
Earlier this year, Patterson worked for several months at a duty-free shop at Los Angeles International Airport, according to a man who answered the telephone at the business on Friday morning. The store is in the Tom Bradley International Terminal, near the El Al Israeli Airlines ticket counter, where an Egyptian immigrant shot and killed two people in a July 4, 2002, attack.
Sheryl Stein, an El Al spokeswoman, said she was not aware of any new threat against the carrier.
“El Al maintains the highest level of security at all times,” she said.
The developments come as the California National Guard is under investigation by federal authorities and the state Senate over concerns that it created a unit to spy on citizens as part of its anti-terrorism activities, which officials deny.
On Friday, private attorneys hired by the Guard told state Sen. Joseph Dunn, D-Garden Grove, they are unlikely to comply with a Senate subpoena served Thursday. The subpoena demands documents associated with the unit that Dunn has been seeking for nearly three weeks.
The request appears to be “extraordinarily broad and ill defined” and may include confidential or federal documents the Guard can’t release, Sacramento attorney George O’Connell said in a letter to Dunn.
The senator warned that if the documents aren’t produced by the Tuesday deadline, the Senate “will immediately commence contempt proceedings” against the Guard.
2 Men's Ties to Group of Extremists Investigated
By Greg Krikorian
Times Staff Writer
July 15, 2005
Counterterrorism officials are investigating the possibility that two men recently arrested in a string of South Bay gas station robberies may have been part of a local group of extremists with ties to prison or street gangs, local and federal law enforcement authorities said Thursday.
Although there is no evidence of a specific terrorist plot, law enforcement officials say materials recovered at the South Los Angeles apartment of one robbery suspect, Levar Haney Washington, 25, suggest that an attack might have been planned at any of nearly two dozen addresses, including National Guard recruiting facilities, two synagogues and a building believed to be the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles.
During an extensive search of Washington's apartment last week, authorities said they found no explosives or bomb-making materials, but did recover some bulletproof vests and undisclosed "jihadist" materials not readily available via the Internet or other public sources, as well as the list of addresses that appeared to be unlikely targets for a simple robbery.
Washington, a Rollin' 60s gang member who was convicted in Orange County in 1999 of assault with a deadly weapon, robbery and belonging to a street gang, converted to Islam in prison. His alleged accomplice, Gregory Vernon Patterson, 21, who has no criminal record, is believed to be a more recent convert.
For several years, the FBI and other federal agencies have been investigating prison gangs to determine what role, if any, they are playing in converting prisoners to radical interpretations of Islam.
Raising investigators' suspicions was their discovery that Patterson, until recently, worked at a duty-free gift shop at Los Angeles International Airport's Tom Bradley International Terminal, where another possible target on the list, El Al Israel Airlines, has its ticket counter.
Patterson, who worked at the airport shop for about six months, left the job early this year.
Sources said there was no evidence that he was at the airport to survey it as a possible target.
Instead, they said they are investigating his time at LAX because the airport has long been known as a terrorist target and the El Al ticket counter was the site of a July 4, 2002, rampage in which an Egyptian immigrant shot and killed two bystanders.
A week after the FBI confirmed that its Joint Terrorism Task Force was investigating the two Muslim converts for possible links to extremism, authorities emphasized Thursday that the fast-moving investigation was still in its early stages.
At the same time, several sources said there is a possibility that others could be arrested in the case. Unlike the ongoing federal investigation in Lodi, Calif., where authorities suspect at least two individuals supported terrorism by attending overseas training camps, the probe of Washington and Patterson is specifically aimed at determining whether they were involved in plotting a terrorist act, law enforcement officials said.
Last week, Torrance police arrested Washington and Patterson in connection with a string of gas station robberies from May 30 to July 3. The arrests occurred during a stakeout by detectives, and subsequently led to a search of Washington's apartment on West 27th Street.
There, authorities said, they discovered what was described as "jihadist" literature, as well as documents with the addresses of numerous sites, including National Guard locations and the "Consulate of Zion." Authorities surmise that is a reference to Israel's consulate in Los Angeles, since the list allegedly found in Washington's apartment was of Southern California locations.
Last week, a California National Guard spokesman confirmed that officials there had been notified of potential threats to their facilities.Calls to the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles seeking comment were not returned Thursday.
After their arrests, Washington and Patterson were arraigned in Torrance Superior Court on nine counts of robbery and one count of attempted robbery. A judge also set bail at $1 million for Patterson and $2 million for Washington.
On Thursday, the attorney for Patterson said that although he knew about the federal investigation by the anti-terrorist task force, he had not been presented with any specific allegations by the FBI or any other agency against his client."I am well aware there is a federal investigation going on," said Winston McKesson, Patterson's lawyer. "And I really believe that once this investigation is complete, it will be crystal clear … that my client was not involved in any terrorist plot."He is a good young man, an honor student who has never been associated with any gangs. His parents are both upstanding members of the community and this is all a shock to them."
Washington's attorney, Deputy Alternate Public Defender Jerome Haig, also said he had not received any indication that his client will be charged with crimes other than the robberies."All I have right now are police reports involving robberies," he said. "And there was absolutely nothing in the police reports that was even remotely related to the things that are now being discussed" in the media.
7/12/2005 - "Could Arrests Indicate a Silent Insurgency of Muslim Converts in the U.S.?"
12 July 2005: Is it possible that a growing Islamic-based terrorist insurgency is beginning to emerge here in the United States, one that is still falling well under the radar of most law enforcement agencies? Terrorist operations cost money, need willing participants, and of course, those participants need weaponry. This scenario has been "allegedly" illustrated by the unfolding of events last week in Torrance, California involving two Black Muslim converts, a string of bank and convenience store robberies, and quite significantly, a list of potential terrorist’s targets that included three National Guard armories.
Officials investigating a string of at least 10 robberies in the South Bay, California area found their suspects, Levar Haney WASHINGTON, 25, and Gregory Vernon PATTERSON, 21. In a subsequent search of WASHINGTON’S South Los Angeles home, police found a list of addresses that included the locations of at least one Army recruitment center and three-(3) National Guard facilities. The military installations were not the only addresses found on the list at Washington's apartment, sources said. It also included some public and private facilities that have previously been identified as potential terrorist targets, according to law enforcement sources. Those locations were not disclosed.
Both men are Islamic converts; they were arrested at approximately 10:00 p.m. on 5 July 2005 by Torrance police who had them under surveillance in connection with a string of robberies of gas stations and convenience stores between May and July 2005. As if to underscore the significance of the threat, bail for WASHINGTON has been set at $2,000,000.
FBI looking into suspicions that two men planned Israeli consulate attack
By Nathan Guttman
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating suspicions that two American citizens arrested recently planned to attack the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles as well as area synagogues.
Los Angeles police arrested the two, Levar Washington, 25, and Gregory Patterson, 21, as suspects in nine armed robberies of local gas stations. But a subsequent search of Washington's apartment revealed a list of over 20 addresses, including those of the consulate, listed as the "Consulate of Zion," several synagogues, and three National Guard installations. All of the organizations on the list were informed of the discovery; it is unknown whether the consulate changed its security procedures in any way due to the warning.
Israeli Consulate in L.A. a terror target?
los angeles (jta) | FBI counterterrorism agents are investigating whether two American Muslim converts planned to attack the Israeli Consulate, two synagogues and other targets in Los Angeles.
Yariv Ovadia, the Israeli consul for public affairs in Los Angeles, confirmed last week that federal agents had warned the consulate of possible threats. “We fully trust American authorities to handle the situation,” he said.
The threats apparently were discovered accidentally when police arrested Levar Haney Washington, 25, and Gregory Vernon Patterson, 21, as suspects in a string of gas station robberies over the past two months.
Washington converted to Islam while serving a prison sentence for a previous assault and robbery conviction in 1999, while Patterson, who has no criminal record, is believed to be a more recent convert. A search of Washington’s apartment turned up jihadi literature, bulletproof vests and an address list of various L.A. sites.
I think some of these have visited us here on FR.
Seen this yet?
bttt
Listen....I hear footsteps coming....Oh! it's the ACLU.
Thanks.
How about posting the link the thread where you posted a lot of Malvo's pictures.
Great replies re what happened last month and how it is connected to this happening.
This is the TIP OF THE ICEBERG. We should be monitoring every mosque, prison or not. Every muslim military chaplain should be screened immediately and we should monitor very closely our muslim military members. The opportunities they have for sabotage are never-ending.
Well, sort of, except the two people arrested initially were Hispanic and Black. The common thread for these guys is not race so much as it is that they are adherents to Wahhabi or Wahhabi off-shoot versions of Islam. That's where we need to focus. Freedom of religion does not extend to a mosque or prayer meeting that includes the planning and execution of crimes.
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