A man involved in a Los Angeles terror plot on Jewish institutions was sentenced to 22 years in prison. Levar Haney Washington, 30, had pleaded guilty last year to federal charges of terrorism conspiracy in a plan to attack military facilities, synagogues and Israeli offices.
Washington was a member of Jam’iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh, or JIS, a radical Islamic organization formed in prison. His plans included attacks on Jewish holidays to kill as many Jews as possible.
He and three co-conspirators were suspected of robbing Los Angeles and Orange County gas stations, which led investigators to their apartment, leading them to discover the terror scheme. The robbery charges in Los Angeles County Superior Court are still pending.
At his sentencing Monday in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, Calif., he said the terror cell acted out of opposition to U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and chose gas stations to rob because oil is a political symbol, according to The Los Angeles Times.
Washington, a convert to Islam, said he renounced radical Islam since his arrest in 2005.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
