America's Islamist Hate Groups

I know everyone is thinking about Katrina and the ill-planned, poorly executed rescue and recovery effort in the Gulf states, but there are some other things happening in the world.

Yesterday, for example, a federal grand jury in LA indicted four men (one of them a Pakistani immigrant) on charges of conspiracy to wage war against the US government, murder government officials, etc. According to the report in the WaPo, the plot was led by Kevin James, 29, a convicted armed robber and long-time resident of California's penal system. James converted to Islam in prison and formed a radical group called Jamiyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh in 1997. The group's members on the outside were arrested when they began a series of armed robberies of gas stations to finance the group's terrorist plans.

We got lucky this time, but as we have said previously, the threat of Islamist terrorists using America's prisons a recruiting ground for potential terrorists is very worrisome.

Update

Today's LAT has a much more detailed piece on the men and their backgrounds:

. . . James created Jamiyyat Ul Islam Is Saheeh ["the Assembly of Authentic Islam"] while in prison at the California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi, according to investigators.

He bolstered his Islamist credentials by claiming to have spent time in Sudan, sources close to the investigation said. He clandestinely distributed a protocol for his organization that justified attacks on "enemies of Islam," including the U.S. government, Jews, supporters of Israel and other "infidels," the indictment says.

This is how Washington allegedly got involved. Before Washington left Folsom, James directed him to find recruits without felony records, acquire firearms and then appoint one follower to learn about explosives or to recruit a bomb maker, the indictment says.