Posted on 07/15/2005 12:37:43 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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?
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 dollars 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 extremeists 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.
It's not only happening in our prisons. It's becomming a scandal in our military as well.
ACLU is trying to get a Buena Park CA (Orange County ) man out of detention (Homeland Security has him for Terrorist Ties ) Todays LA Times , Orange County Edition....
The ACLU...another day.
Bump for later!
We always get this statement!
His youngest brother Mohammed said el-Nashar returned to Egypt on June 30 and was arrested on Thursday.``I believe in his innocence. Ask anyone in the street or at the college, they will say that all his attention was focused on his studies and research,'' Mohammed el-Nashar, in his late 20s, told The Associated Press. ``I want the whole world, America and the British, to know that we know nothing and don't know why this is all happening.''
Once again, LAX has been on the terror list since Y2K. There was a full size layout of LAX (terminals all measured out) at a terror camp in Afghanistan, and it has been attacked once (7/4/02) since.
Why has he been here for 25 years?
Here on a Student Visa , but we kept issuing him annual work permits.
The US Immigration Judge D. D. Sitgraves who ordered Hamdan deported and held without bond also blocked the governments attempt to return him to his native Jordan where he was born in a Palestinian refugee camp. Sitgraves ruled that he might be persecuted or tortured if returned to Jordan,
....
"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"
Smells like the group Free Republic has been monitoring for about 4 years.
That group is al Fuqra, aka, black muslims and other names. They are the mentally deficient farm team of al Qaeda.
Below is the link to just Free Republic threads and data on these killers, jihadis thugs and traitors:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?j1=and;k=alfuqra;p1=
These guys are home grown, I think, and didn't sneak through any doors, wide open or not.
If you are really concerned about terrorists crossing the border you will encourage your Congressman to give the Homeland Secretary needs to secure the border.
So they have been quiet for a year......hmmm, that's good!
No connection to the Lodi guys.....?
Yep. We had a long discussion about these groups back in 2001. WHo knows what those guys are up to? I think that all Muslim chaplains in the prisons should be monitored. And I don't give a flying leap what the ACLU says.
MEIN KAMPF = MEIN KORAN
ALLAHU AKBAR! = HEIL HITLER!
It will be interesting to see if the left wing mediots outhere make the connections to al Fuqra and even mention it.
I doubt it. They wil probably treat the arrests as separate criminal arrests and ignore any terror connections.
"I doubt it. They will probably treat the arrests as separate criminal arrests and ignore any terror connections."
Well the mediots were really quiet about the connections between the DC Snipers and al Fuqra/aka the Black Muslims.
Yep. You are exactly right. It is going to be up to the internet and talk radio to point out the connections.
one-trick pony....
"Yep. You are exactly right. It is going to be up to the internet and talk radio to point out the connections."
We have started the process and will continue it.
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