LA man draws 22-year sentence for plot

SANTA ANA, Calif., June 24 (UPI) -- A Los Angeles Islamic convert who planned to finance terrorist activities through armed robberies has been sentenced to 22 years in federal prison.

Levar Haney Washington was sentenced Monday after being convicted on terrorism conspiracy charges. At his sentencing hearing, he told a federal judge he belonged to prison-based Islamic terrorism cell and "flirted with the possibility" of attacking U.S. and Israeli military targets and synagogues, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Washington, 30, said he and three other defendants were members of Jam'iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh, a militant Islamic organization formed in California prisons. Prosecutors said Washington and alleged cell member Gregory Patterson are suspected of robbing about 12 gas stations in Los Angeles and Orange counties over a monthlong period, and intended to use money from the robberies to finance terrorism, the Times said.

The newspaper said Washington told U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney in Santa Ana, Calif., that he and fellow cell members acted out of opposition to U.S. policies toward the Middle East and chose gas stations to rob because oil is a political symbol.