Four charged in homegrown terror plot: L.A. Now Live
Times Inland Empire correspondent Phil Willon will join L.A. Now Live at 9 a.m. to discuss the alleged terror plot involving four Southern California men who were arrested and charged after a months-long investigation into what authorities said was a plan to commit a "violent jihad."
A federal complaint unsealed this week against the suspects depicts them as intent on joining Al Qaeda and killing American and U.S.-led coalition troops in Afghanistan. But the court papers indicate that their alleged road to martyrdom was rutted with endless logistical problems, dubious connections overseas and their own equivocating over the smallest decisions: How do you pack for a jihad?
Three of the suspects lived in quiet neighborhoods in Ontario, Upland and Riverside. A fourth, Sohiel Kabir, 34, is a native Afghan and naturalized U.S. citizen who has lived in Pomona and served in the Air Force from 2000 to 2001.
Their alleged plan seemed -- at least based on the complaint -- amateur, with a social media path that easily pointed the way back to them.
The alleged aspiring terrorists "liked" each other's jihadist Facebook postings. When they played paintball in Corona to prepare, they commended each other for going full-throttle for shaheed (martyrdom) against timid opponents, according to the complaint. One man, the court papers said, vowed to start hiking to get to know mountain terrain, and maybe try skydiving to see how he handled fear.
But federal officials took the defendants' alleged plans extremely seriously, and expended "extraordinary resources" to track and stop them, David Bowdich, FBI special agent in charge of counter-terrorism in Los Angeles, said at a news conference Tuesday.
"Not only were they playing paintball, they were going to shooting ranges," Bowdich said. "They saw this as jihad."
The charges appear to be based largely on the work of the undercover informant, who has been on the FBI payroll for more than four years and has received $250,000 and "immigration benefits" for his work. According to the affidavit included in the criminal complaint, he was once convicted of trafficking pseudoephedrine, a chemical precursor to methamphetamine.
News of the arrests rattled neighbors of the defendants, who lived in quiet neighborhoods in Ontario, Upland and Riverside.
Just a few months earlier, Deleon was regularly playing basketball in the driveway of his parents' Ontario home with his 15-year-old next-door neighbor, Martin Garcia.
"I was in shock. I was like, damn!" Garcia said. "He's actually a really nice guy. He'd offer to take me out to dinner when we played basketball together."
"Then he became Muslim. He would try to influence me to become Muslim, tell me all these nice stories and it sounded pretty cool."
Deleon's younger brother told Garcia that Deleon was moving to Afghanistan.
"He just said he was tired of all that life," Garcia said. "He was just a regular teenager, partying and all that before."
Ulises Vargas, 23, said he attended classes at Ontario High School in 2006 with Deleon, and ate lunch with him and other friends almost daily. Deleon was outgoing — someone who played on the football team, made Homecoming Court and cracked jokes at lunch.
"It's surreal because it's somebody that you knew," Vargas said.
Deleon's father politely declined to comment, saying only, "It's too difficult."
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Add / View comments | Discussion FAQI'm awaiting the usual government press conference with the one speaker at the microphone and all his/her buttt kisssing collagues huddling behind and around the speaker ... to get themselves on TV.
Oh, yes. And don't we all just love those government shoulder patches and hats with FBI and POLICE and FEMA and DHS .... ??????????? Silly little people who rely upon silly little government clothing decorations who cannot function in life without backslapping themselves and making us watch through never ending press conferences.
Funny tidbit from another news website; apparently another cohort of the main guy who's already in Afghanistan actually called in sick to a suicide bombing. He was too ill to kill himself!
Yes, you read that right.
Yeah. "Terror" ... the buzz word that the government chants about to keep Americans fearful rather than just doing their government jobs without demanding our attention. You see, they enjoy their little press conferences in which those government people all huddle at the microphone, with thos stern, authoratative facial expressions, because they are all just so intent on being on TV.
While the actual government news that we should REALLY all be fearful of.... off duty criminal cops invading our homes and brandishing their guns at us in personal disputes. See the following news article of today....
San Francisco Off Duty Cop ARRESTED for home invasion using a gun....
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/S-F-deputy-sheriff-faces-6-charges-4054755.php
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