Two men plead not guilty to federal terrorism charges

santa ana | Two men pleaded not guilty this week to federal charges of planning terrorist attacks against U.S. military facilities, the Israeli Consulate and other Los Angeles-area targets.

Levar Haney Washington, 25, and Gregory Vernon Patterson, 21, entered the pleas at their arraignment in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana. Both men were ordered held without bond.

"In the name of Allah, I plead not guilty," Washington said before U.S. Magistrate Judge Arthur Nakazato.

Prosecutors contend the plot was orchestrated by Washington, Patterson and Hammad Riaz Samana, 21, at the behest of Kevin James, a California State Prison, Sacramento, inmate who founded the radical group Jamiyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh, or JIS.

The four men face counts of conspiracy to wage war against the U.S. government through terrorism, kill armed service members and murder foreign officials, among other charges, according to the indictment.

Washington, Patterson and Samana — who attended the same Inglewood mosque — allegedly conducted surveillance of military sites, synagogues, the Israeli Consulate and El Al airline facilities in the Los Angeles area as well as Internet research on Jewish holidays.