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Colleen LaRose, who is also known by the pseudonyms of Fatima LaRose and JihadJane - Source: Reuters -
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A Pennsylvania woman has been charged with plotting to kill a
Swedish man and trying to recruit fighters via the internet to
commit violent attacks overseas, the US Justice Department
said.
Colleen LaRose, who also went by the pseudonym of Fatima LaRose and
JihadJane, was charged with conspiracy to commit murder overseas,
conspiracy to provide support to terrorists, making false
statements and attempted identity theft.
LaRose posted a comment on YouTube in June 2008 that she wanted to
help the suffering Muslim people.
She sent emails to unnamed co-conspirators offering to become a
martyr as well as to use her American background to avoid
detection, according to the indictment filed in a federal court in
Pennsylvania.
The indictment accused LaRose of agreeing in March 2009 to marry a
co-conspirator from a South Asian country and try to obtain
residency in Europe.
He urged her to go to Sweden, find the unnamed Swedish man and
kill him.
Also on Tuesday, Irish police said seven people had been arrested
there in connection with a plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist, Lars
Vilk, over a 2007 drawing depicting the Prophet Muhammed with the
body of a dog.
The US Justice Department declined to comment on whether the cases
were connected.
"Today's indictment, which alleges that a woman from suburban
America agreed to carry out murder overseas and to provide material
support to terrorists, underscores the evolving nature of the
threat we face," David Kris, head of the department's national
security division, said in a statement.
The Obama administration has grown increasingly worried about
Americans and foreigners living in the United States taking up the
cause of anti-American militants and launching attacks here or
abroad.
Two recent cases have fuelled those concerns: the arrest of a
Chicago man accused of helping plot the 2008 Mumbai attacks and an
Afghan immigrant living in Colorado who pleaded guilty to plotting
a bomb attack on the New York subway system.
In the Pennsylvania case, LaRose was accused of travelling to
Europe in August 2009 and tracking online her intended murder
target in Sweden, according to the indictment.
It also said she tried to raise money over the internet, lure
others to her cause and lied to FBI investigators.
"This case also demonstrates that terrorists are looking for
Americans to join them in their cause, and it shatters any
lingering thought that we can spot a terrorist based on
appearance," Michael Levy, the US attorney in Pennsylvania, said in
a statement.
After returning to the United States, LaRose was arrested in
October 2009 on a charge related to the theft of a US passport,
court documents showed.
If convicted on the four counts in the indictment, which was dated
March 4, 2010, LaRose could face a sentence of life in prison and a
$1.4 million fine.
