SOCAL ATTACKS FOILED, FEDS SAY

Four are arrested, accused of plotting to bomb businesses on New Year's Eve.

- BY GRACE TOOHEY

DAMIAN DOVARGANES Associated Press

IMAGES of four suspects are shown on a screen at a news conference. They are accused of planning several New Year's Eve bombings.

A plan to attack several Los Angeles-area businesses on New Year’s Eve was detailed, dangerous and already in motion, authorities said.

But as four people allegedly tied to a left-wing, antigovernment group gathered last week in the Mojave Desert to make and test several test bombs, FBI officials say, agents were able to foil the terror plot.

“They had everything they needed to make an operational bomb at that location,” First Assistant U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli said at a news conference Monday morning. “We disrupted this terror plot before buildings were demolished or innocent people were killed.”

The four people were arrested on suspicion of devising a plot that Essayli called “organized, sophisticated and extremely violent.” They all were tied to what officials described as a radical faction of the Turtle Island Liberation Front called Order of the Black Lotus. FBI Assistant Director in Charge Akil Davis called the faction “a violent, homegrown, antigovernment group.”

Officials wouldn't name the businesses or buildings the group allegedly planned to target, but Essayli said they were various “logistic centers” similar to ones that Amazon might have. He said they were located in Los Angeles and Orange counties.