Free Republic

A third man charged in a plot to attack Southern California military sites and other targets pleaded guilty Monday to a terrorism conspiracy charge. Gregory Vernon Patterson, 23, entered his plea in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana to one count of conspiring to levy war against the U.S. government through terrorism. He also pleaded guilty to conspiring to use a firearm during that offense. Patterson could face up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced on April 14, prosecutors said. Two other men - Kevin James, 31, and Levar Haley Washington, 28 - pleaded guilty in the...

A federal judge on Monday rejected a request to dismiss some of the counts against a Lodi man convicted of supporting terrorists, leaving in place the possible maximum prison sentence of 39 years. Hamid Hayat, 23, was convicted in April of one count of providing material support to terrorists by attending an al-Qaida training camp in Pakistan and three counts of lying about it to FBI agents. His attorney, Wazhma Mojaddidi, argued that federal prosecutors were piling on potential prison time by charging three versions of the same lying offense. Each count brings up to eight years in federal prison,...