Homegrown U.S. terrorist sent to prison

SANTA ANA, Calif., July 21 (UPI) -- A California terrorist who plotted to wage war against the United States was sentenced Monday to more than 12 1/2 years in prison, prosecutors said.

Gregory Patterson, 24, of Gardena was part of a domestic terrorist cell that intended to wage jihad, or holy war, against U.S. military facilities, as well as Israeli and Jewish targets and "infidels," the U.S. Justice Department said.

Another member of the cell, Levar Washington, 30, was sentenced to 22 years in prison last month. The men had pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court last December to conspiring to wage war against the United States.

The man who organized the terror cell -- Kevin James -- also has pleaded guilty and is to be sentenced Feb. 9.

A fourth alleged member -- Hammad Samana -- has been found unfit to stand trial and is receiving psychiatric care at a federal prison facility.

James created Jam'iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh while in California's New Folsom Prison in 1997. Washington and Patterson conducted about a dozen armed robberies of gas stations to get money for the group's planned attacks in the Los Angeles area, Justice Department officials said. Their targets allegedly included the Los Angeles airport, the Israeli consulate, Army recruiting centers and a military base at Manhattan Beach, prosecutors said.