California terror plotter jailed

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A member of a radical Islamic group has been sentenced to 22 years in prison for planning attacks in California.

Levar Washington, 30, was accused of conspiring to wage war against the United States - a charge he pleaded guilty to in December 2007.

Military sites and synagogues were among the targets of the group.

Washington's co-defendants, Kevin James and Gregory Patterson, who have also pleaded guilty, will be sentenced in the next few months.

A fourth member of the group, Hammad Samana, was found unfit to stand trial and is currently receiving psychiatric care at a federal facility.

Guns and bombs

Washington had asked for leniency, saying that the government had overstated the extent of the plot.

But Judge Cormac Carney said in sentencing that "the nature and scope of the terrorist acts... are truly frightening".

The JIS terrorist group posed a significant threat of violent action against a variety of targets US Attorney Thomas O'Brien According to prosecutors, Washington, Patterson and Samana had orchestrated the plot at the behest of James.

James had founded the Jamiyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh, or JIS, group while in Sacramento prison in 1997 following his conviction for attempted robbery.

There he met Washington, who converted to Islam and in turn recruited Patterson and Samana, according to the indictment against the men.

The four men were charged in 2005 after a robbery intended to pay for their operations. In total they robbed about 12 petrol stations, said Thom Mrozek, the US attorney's spokesman.

The indictment also said that they had conducted surveillance of military sites and Israeli and Jewish facilities, purchased guns and undergone firearms training, and had investigated making bombs.

"The JIS terrorist group posed a significant threat of violent action against a variety of targets," said US Attorney for central California Thomas O'Brien, in a statement released after Washington's sentencing.

"Through the fine work of members of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task force, deadly attacks were averted," he said.