Four Indicted in Alleged U.S. Terror Plot.

LOS ANGELES - Four men, including the head of a radical Islamic prison gang, were indicted on federal charges of plotting terrorist attacks against military facilities, the Israeli Consulate and synagogues in Los Angeles.

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, in announcing the charges Wednesday in Washington, D.C., referred to the London mass transit attacks in July. “Some in this country mistakenly believed it could not happen here. Today we have chilling evidence that it is possible,” he said.

Named in the indictment were Levar Haley Washington, 25; Gregory Vernon Patterson, 21; Hammad Riaz Samana, 21; and Kevin James, 29. The four conspired to wage war against the U.S. government through terrorism, kill armed service members and murder foreign officials, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors contend the plot was orchestrated by Washington, Patterson and Samana at the behest of James, an inmate at the California State Prison-Sacramento who founded the radical group Jamiyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh. According to the indictment, Washington pledged his loyalty to James “until death by martyrdom” and sought to establish a JIS cell outside prison with members with bomb expertise.

Washington, Patterson and Samana — who attended the same Inglewood mosque — allegedly conducted surveillance of the Los Angeles targets, as well as Internet research on Jewish holidays. Law enforcement officials have previously said that the military facilities included National Guard sites, though the indictment does not specify.

The attacks were to be carried out with firearms and other weapons at synagogues during Jewish holidays “to maximize the number of casualties,” authorities said. Patterson allegedly bought a .223-caliber rifle in July. In Los Angeles, authorities said the suspects could have attacked as soon as the Yom Kippur Jewish holiday in October.