Posted on 09/26/2005 11:39:05 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
THE suspected founder of a radical Islamic prison gang pleaded not guilty today to US terrorism charges over an alleged plot to bomb military bases, an Israeli consulate and synagogues in California.
Kevin James, accused of masterminding plans to kill up to 40 people at 10 military facilities and other sites around Los Angeles, is one of four people accused in the alleged conspiracy. The four observed military bases and recruiting offices with the aim of killing military personnel and also targeted the Israeli consulate, Israel's national airline El Al and Jewish places of worship, the government claimed.
At a hearing in Santa Ana, southeast of Los Angeles, Mr James, 29, pleaded not guilty to charges contained in a six-count indictment.
Mr James, named in two of the six counts, pleaded innocent before US Magistrate Judge Marc Goldman to conspiracy to levy a war against the US through terrorism and conspiracy to possess and discharge firearms.
His alleged fellow co-conspirators, Levar Haney Washington, 25, Gregory Vernon Patterson, a 21-year-old former employee of a duty-free shop at Los Angeles International Airport, and Hammad Samana, a 21-year-old Pakistani resident of Los Angeles, have also denied the charges.
The alleged plot unravelled after the July 5 arrests of Washington and Patterson, authorities say. The pair were picked up after allegedly robbing a petrol station in order to pay for weapons to carry out acts of terror. Goldman set an October 17 status conference hearing and a November 22 trial date for Mr James, who is known by 10 aliases.
Mr James, originally incarcerated for attempted robbery and currently serving a sentence for being a prisoner in possession of a weapon, allegedly founded the Islamist group Jamiyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheed, or JIS, while behind bars in 1997.
Without checking, it appears that three of the four conspirators are Americans with western names. Very troubling.
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