Jihad from Jail: Kevin James Pleads Not Guilty

By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

My recent Weekly Standard article analyzing radical Islamic literature in America's prison system discusses the recent indictment of four California men on charges of conspiring to attack military and Jewish targets in the Los Angeles area.  Their targets allegedly included military bases and recruitment centers, synagogues, the Israeli Consulate, and El Al airline facilities.  This case is significant for many reasons, not least of which is the fact that it's the first alleged terrorist plot since 9/11 to be hatched in a U.S. prison cell.

There was a development in the case Monday when Kevin James, one of the four defendants, entered a not guilty plea.  His indignant lawyer, Robert Carlin, called the indictment "pretty worthless," described statements by the U.S. Attorney's Office linking James to a domestic jihad as inflammatory, and said that James was "shocked" by the allegations against him.

The indictment paints Kevin James as the ringleader in this terrorist plot.  It states that James founded Jam'iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh (JIS), a covert prison organization devoted to his radical interpretation of Islam, in 1997.  The indictment then provides a snapshot of how JIS functioned:

2.  Defendant JAMES preached the duty of JIS members to target for violent attack any enemies of Islam or "infidels," including the United States Government and Jewish and non-Jewish supporters of Israel.

3.  Defendant JAMES actively recruited his fellow prison inmates to join JIS by clandestinely distributing a document or "protocol," which set forth defendant JAMES' religious teachings about Islam, including his justification for killing infidels or non-believers, and guidelines to be followed by JIS members ("JIS Protocol").

4.  Defendant JAMES required prospective JIS members to take an oath of obedience to him and swear not to disclose the existence of JIS.  Defendant JAMES also required prospective JIS members to swear that they would obey a ninety day contact rule, wherein they would communicate with defendant JAMES at least once during every ninety day period.

5.  In addition to his recruitment efforts inside prison, defendant JAMES also sought to establish groups or "cells" of JIS members outside of prison which would carry out violent attacks against perceived infidels, including the United States Government, the Government of Israel, and Jewish persons.

The indictment states that another defendant, Levar Washington, joined JIS in November 2004.  It also claims that James "provide[d] instructions [and] spiritual and tactical guidance" to all of the plotters.

It's worth following the criminal case as it moves forward following James's not guilty plea.  The case can provide us with important insight into the dangers posed by radical Islam in the prison system.  Two questions that deserve scrutiny are what Islamic sect James and the other plotters belonged to, and how Kevin James came to embrace such a radical interpretation of his religion (i.e. where and how he received his education in Islam).

The indictment claims that James clandestinely distributed a document setting forth his "religious teachings about Islam, including the justification for killing infidels or non-believers."  If this document is made public, it would be invaluable in helping us to understand James's violent theology.  If we're to make the prisons less of a hotbed for potential terrorists, we need to understand how California state prisoners became so steeped in Islamic radicalism that they were prepared to take up arms against their own country.

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