Alleged Plot to Attack Southland Targets Probed
By Greg Krikorian and Jennifer Warren, Times Staff Writers
Counterterrorism officials investigating an alleged plot to attack National Guard recruitment centers, synagogues and other sites in Southern California said Tuesday they are investigating the possibility that the plot was hatched by Islamic extremists and gang members at a state prison in Folsom.
While details remained closely guarded, law enforcement sources said they were actively investigating the breadth of possible connections between three men now in custody in Los Angeles and inmates at the prison, which is located in Folsom and formally known as California State Prison, Sacramento.
The possibility of connections between prison gangs and potential terrorists has been a worry for U.S. officials for some time. Currently, there are at least "several" significant investigations into the alleged use of federal and state prisons as bases for radicalizing and recruiting potential Islamic terrorists, according to a senior FBI counter-terrorism official in Washington, who spoke on the condition of anonymity since he is not authorized to comment publicly on counter-terrorism investigations.
Investigators emphasized that they have not proven that the alleged plot in the current case was hatched at the prison. Nor are they certain how many of some two dozen targets involved in the case might actually have been the site of a planned terrorist attack. "We have no indication so far how many they might have gone after," said a law enforcement official involved in the case who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the continuing investigation.
The investigators say they do know, however, that an Islamic group called Jamiyyat Ul Islam Is Saheeh or JIS, has had a presence at Folsom for about five years and that its followers include both inmates and former inmates. The group's name translates as The Assembly of Authentic Islam....
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-torrance17aug17,0,1667189.story?coll=la-home-headlines