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Terror Plot Hatched in California Prison (Authorities Thwart Attack Intended for Next Month)
ABC News ^ | August 16, 2005 | Brian Ross

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.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events; US: California; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: alfuqra; alqaeda; blackmuslims; counterterrorism; fbi; foiled; fourthanniversary; jewish; jihadinamerica; jttf; kevinjames; levarwashington; losangeles; military; muslim; nationofislam; petermartinez; prison; prisons; recruits; terrorism
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1 posted on 08/16/2005 6:40:33 PM PDT by Ooh-Ah
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To: Ooh-Ah
"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.

Ya, right.

2 posted on 08/16/2005 6:42:51 PM PDT by Jeff Head (www.dragonsfuryseries.com)
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To: Ooh-Ah; Chieftain

WHAT???


3 posted on 08/16/2005 6:44:02 PM PDT by Recovering Ex-hippie (Everything I need to know about Islam I learned on 9-11!)
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To: Ooh-Ah

needle him for everything


4 posted on 08/16/2005 6:44:02 PM PDT by sure_fine (*not one to over kill the thought process*)
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To: Ooh-Ah
entered prison a convicted thief and left as a militant black Muslim who had sworn allegiance to a violent jihad

If we're not checking the Muslim chaplain for that prison, we're wrong. Remember about two years ago, the New York prison system fired their Muslim chaplain for preaching extremism.

5 posted on 08/16/2005 6:46:05 PM PDT by mark502inf
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To: Ooh-Ah

Absolutely no surpise here - I hope they are watching other prisons as well.


6 posted on 08/16/2005 6:47:47 PM PDT by mlc9852
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To: Dog

Had you heard this? This is completely new to me.


7 posted on 08/16/2005 6:47:51 PM PDT by Peach (The Clintons pardoned more terrorists than they ever captured or killed.)
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To: Jeff Head

I thought the exact same thing? Who does he think he's kidding. Not Freepers, that's for sure!


8 posted on 08/16/2005 6:48:55 PM PDT by mlc9852
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To: Peach

I saw something about this earlier..


9 posted on 08/16/2005 6:48:55 PM PDT by Dog
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To: sure_fine
RELIGION OF PEACE ALERT...again.

I agree. If this weren't California I could imagine these scummy phakers getting hit by a truck as they stepped from their morning shower.

Why these pricks are still breathing is beyond me.

10 posted on 08/16/2005 6:51:23 PM PDT by skimbell (Now in its 42nd year and still no Exit Strategy for the War on Poverty.)
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To: Ooh-Ah

Did anyone catch this part of the story? It bothers me a bit.

"for fear of other cell members still at large"


11 posted on 08/16/2005 6:51:28 PM PDT by Dave278
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To: Jeff Head
"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."

Who the f&%k does THIS idiot think he is kidding?

He's got some big fat connection with the planning of the averted strike or he wouldn't be playing so innocent.
12 posted on 08/16/2005 6:51:28 PM PDT by Mr. Jazzy (Bumper sticker "Martyrs or Marines: Who do YOU think will get the virgins?")
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To: Travis McGee; DoughtyOne

FYI
Of course prisons are recruiting pools for AQ and Islam.


13 posted on 08/16/2005 6:51:42 PM PDT by onyx (North is a direction. South is a way of life.)
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To: Ooh-Ah

Didn't Mike Tyson come out of prison, once, "praising" Allah?? Like any cult, they pray on the one brain cell people like this have left, so when they go out into the "real" world they are ticking time bombs convinced that the virgins and Allah are ready and waiting to greet them...........Bureau of Prisons really, really needs to get a handle on the Muslims they are allowing inside to be "spiritual leaders and teachers" for the prisoners that want it!!


14 posted on 08/16/2005 6:52:22 PM PDT by soozla (Some people bring happiness when they enter the room and others........when they leave it.)
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To: Ooh-Ah
I am sure AQ is recruiting from those White Supremacy groups as well as NOI groups. . .therefore both groups need careful watching when it comes to muslim terror activities.

/sarcasm
15 posted on 08/16/2005 6:56:29 PM PDT by Gunrunner2
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To: skimbell

Religion of Peace BARF alert BWAAAAAAAAAAA


16 posted on 08/16/2005 6:56:37 PM PDT by Zrob (freedom without lies)
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To: Peach

I had been hearing about this stuff for years, and this is one of the reasons why I worry about the terrorist cells here, that, like in England, are HOME GROWN...

The dems worry about GITMO, but it seems that some of the interrogators need to be moved to the US prisons..

They should put in bugs, and video cameras in the cell blocks so that we can find out when these plots are being hatched...oh, never mind, the ACLU wouldn't like that!


17 posted on 08/16/2005 6:58:30 PM PDT by Txsleuth (Germaine Brousard: She deserves a medal for what she does for the troops!)
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To: Txsleuth

We should definitely bug the mosques.

Steven Emerson wrote a great book, the first book I read after 9/11, called Jihad in America. He had to rent warehouses to hold all the info he got from sending in somebody who taped the hate speech in the mosques around the country and other info he collected.


18 posted on 08/16/2005 6:59:47 PM PDT by Peach (The Clintons pardoned more terrorists than they ever captured or killed.)
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To: NormsRevenge; sheik yerbouty; Pelham; EagleUSA; Dont_Tread_On_Me_888

ping!


19 posted on 08/16/2005 6:59:50 PM PDT by Stellar Dendrite (The presence of "peace" is the absence of opposition to socialism -- Marx)
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To: Gunrunner2

Are you kidding? Nazis and Jihadis get along great. After 9/11 White Supremacist websites were filled with acclaim for bin Laden for "having the balls to actually attack International Zionism," etc. In Europe one problem they're having is that old Nazis are converting to Islam. That's the danger with racial profiling - it's a veritable rainbow of psychos who've taken up al Qaeda's cause, not just Arabs or North Africans.


20 posted on 08/16/2005 7:02:45 PM PDT by Lejes Rimul (Paleo and Proud)
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