7 arrested in Ireland over Swedish cartoonist plot - 5 released

[Al-khiyal]

'Jihad Jane' met Islamists plotting to kill cartoonist, Irish police say

March 11, 2010 -- An American woman convert to Islam who called herself "Jihad Jane" travelled to Ireland to meet some of the suspects arrested over a supposed plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist, Irish police said today. Detectives believe Colleen Renee LaRose met a number of Irish-based Muslims through Islamist websites and discussed an alleged plot to kill cartoonist Lars Vilks. Vilks had a $100,000 (£67,000) bounty on his head after drawing a cartoon depicting the prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog in 2007. Al-Qaida also offered a 50% bonus to anyone who slit his throat to ensure he was "slaughtered like a lamb".

LaRose is understood to have visited Ireland last August after cancelling a trip to Sweden. While in the Republic, she was said to have met some of the seven people arrested in Waterford and Cork earlier this week. It was after her trip to Ireland that the FBI contacted the Garda Síochána, who then put a number of people under surveillance. The seven suspects – three Algerians, a Libyan, a Palestinian, a Croatian and an American woman married to one of the Algerians – were arrested on Tuesday, hours before the U.S. authorities announced a terror indictment against LaRose. Irish police are still questioning seven suspects, four men and three women aged between their mid-20s and late 40s. Officers seized computers, phones and documents, but security sources in the Republic stressed today that they did not believe they had uncovered an active al-Qaida cell in the Republic.

LaRose, who also called herself Fatima LaRose online, allegedly posted a comment on YouTube in June 2008, saying she wanted to help "the suffering Muslim people". According to the indictment, filed in a federal court in Pennsylvania, she sent emails to unnamed co-conspirators offering to become a martyr, as well as offering to use her U.S. background to avoid detection. The indictment accuses LaRose of agreeing, in March 2009, to marry a co-conspirator from a south Asian country who was trying to obtain residency in Europe. He allegedly urged her to go to Sweden, find the unnamed Swedish man "and kill him". The indictment claims she tried to raise money over the internet, lure others to her cause, and lied to FBI investigators. LaRose was arrested after returning to the U.S. in October 2009 on a charge related to the theft of a U.S. passport, according to court documents. If convicted on the four counts in the indictment, issued on 4 March, LaRose could face a sentence of life in prison and a $1 million fine.

[Al-khiyal]

Caricatures du prophète :
Prolongation de la garde à vue de sept suspects en Irlande

Jeudi 11 Mars 2010 -- La garde à vue de sept personnes arrêtées en Irlande et soupçonnées d'être impliquées dans un complot en vue d'assassiner le dessinateur suédois Lars Vilks, auteur d'une caricature du Prophète Mahomet, a été prolongée de trois jours par un juge irlandais jeudi. Les sept suspects, dont une Américaine mariée à un Algérien, avaient été arrêtés mardi en Irlande, peu après l'inculpation pour terrorisme d'une Américaine de 46 ans, Colleen LaRose, qui se fait appeler "Jihad Jane", pour avoir comploté l'assassinat du dessinateur. Colleen LaRose était venue en Irlande en septembre dernier, passant deux semaines avec le couple, et d'autres suspects. Le juge du tribunal de Waterford, dans le sud-est de l'Irlande, a accepté la prolongation de la garde à vue de 72 heures, à l'issue d'audiences à huis-clos - fait extrêmement rare en Irlande - la police cherchant à garder secrète l'identité des suspects, qui sont de nationalité algérienne, libyenne, palestinienne ou encore croate.

[Al-khiyal]

'Jihad Jane' visited Ireland to plan cartoonist murder plot

March 11, 2010 -- ‘Jihad Jane’ is allegedly the mastermind behind the plot to murder Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks. Colleen Renee LaRose, who dubbed herself “Jihad Jane” on her YouTube account, hosted terrorist propaganda on her website and encouraged a Jihad against Vilks. LaRose has been in custody since her arrest in connection with the plot last October. She spent two weeks in Ireland while on a fact finding mission to find willing "Martyrs" for the murder plot. Unknown to LaRose was that the Irish police and CIA were keeping her under close surveillance.

During her visit she was in constant contact with a 49-year-old Algerian who was arrested by Irish police on Tuesday morning. The Algerian man is the prime suspect in the murder plot. All of the terror suspects are legal residents in Ireland. They include a Palestinian, a Croat, a Libyan and two other Algerians, and some have been resident in Ireland for up to 10 years. LaRose befriended the suspects on the Internet and then gave them passwords to secret online chatrooms. Investigators say this is where the murder plot was discussed in detail.

The Irish police have spoken to 25 other people who personally know the suspects to ascertain whether they attempted to radicalize any other Irish residents. The Irish police have also dismissed claims that the suspects are an Al-Qaida cell. Last night authorities were granted permission to detain the suspects for a week of questioning without charge. The police are currently examining Mobile phones and computers that were seized in the suspects’ property. It is not known at this time if the suspects will be charged with terrorist offences.

[Al-khiyal]

The life story of 'Jihad Jane' is 'like a country music song'

Philadelphia, March 11, 2010 -- She married young and badly. She bounced checks at Pizza Hut and the grocery. She hit the bottle to excess sometimes, talked to her cats and once attempted suicide. And, as "Jihad Jane," she spewed violent-sounding vitriol online for all the world - including law enforcement - to see. From what's known about her so far, Colleen Renee LaRose is not coming off as the sharpest jihadist in the suburbs. The life of the Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, woman who is due in federal court Thursday on terrorism charges is sounding ever more sad than scary. "She's had a hard life, so tough that her life story is like a country music song," said a person close to the investigation. LaRose, 46, is scheduled for arraignment next week in federal court in Philadelphia, accused of conspiring to support Islamic extremists and plotting to assassinate a Swedish artist. Arrested in October and kept under federal wraps since, LaRose became international news Tuesday when her indictment was unsealed.

All of which has left many, including the man with whom she lived, scratching their heads. "We were together about five years," said former boyfriend Kurt Gorman of Pennsburg. Had anyone accused her of terrorism, he said, "I would've thought it was a joke." Yet federal authorities say LaRose flew to Europe August 23 "with the intent to live and train with jihadists, and to find and kill" Swedish artist Lars Vilks, whose 2007 portrait of the prophet Muhammad as a dog outraged some Muslims. Last summer, Gorman traveled with her to the Netherlands, but soon afterward, his ailing father, whom LaRose took care of, died of a heart attack. The day after the funeral in August, Gorman came home to find LaRose gone. On August 23, authorities say, LaRose went back to Europe. She was arrested October 16 at Philadelphia International Airport as she stepped off a plane.

In 1980, according to records, she was 16 when a justice of the peace in the Fort Worth area married her to a man twice her age. Eight years later, she was back at the altar to wed Rodolfo Cavazos, a union that lasted a decade before ending in divorce. Her divorce lawyer, William R. Moore, remembers the couple. Cavazos played cards for a living but "didn't appear to me to be a big thug type; he wasn't a drug dealer or anything." Moore had not connected that woman to the story he read in the newspaper until it was brought up in an interview. "She seemed like a pretty decent person from the lower side of life," he said. "She was always nice, said 'yes, sir,' 'no, ma'am,' all that other kind of stuff."

LaRose was fined for criminal trespass in 1985 and got a drunken-driving charge in 1997, the same year she passed four bad checks - three for groceries, one to Pizza Hut - totaling $390.71. On May 21, 2005, LaRose, drunk and depressed over her father's recent death, swallowed eight to 10 prescription muscle relaxers. Pennsburg police Officer Michael Devlin, now chief, reported that LaRose's sister near Dallas summoned police after a long-distance call. LaRose told Devlin, "She does not want to die," the report said. She was taken to a hospital in Quakertown. Police told LaRose's boyfriend she seemed very depressed and suggested getting her counseling. Her Pennsburg neighbor, Kristy Newell, who used to live across the hall, said LaRose kept to herself and talked loudly to her two indoor Persian cats. "She would say things like, 'Oh, my babies,' at the top of her lungs," Newell said. She said she never saw LaRose in any Muslim attire. "When I saw her, she was mainly in shorts and T-shirts."

[Al-khiyal]

'Jihad Jane' had troubled past

"...She helped prosecutors in their case against seven Muslims in Ireland..."

Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, March 11, 2010 -- An American woman accused of plotting to kill a Swedish cartoonist whose work enraged Muslims has led a checkered and sometimes troubled life, including at least two run-ins with the law before she was indicted on terror-related charges last week. An indictment unsealed this week revealed that 46-year-old Colleen LaRose — who authorities said used the screen name "JihadJane" in Internet posts attempting to recruit jihadis — was charged March 4 with providing material support to terrorists.

She has been held in a Philadelphia detention center since October, when she was arrested and charged with identity theft. A person familiar with the matter said Ms. LaRose has been cooperating with authorities since her arrest. She helped prosecutors in their case against seven Muslims in Ireland accused of plotting to kill cartoonist Lars Vilks, this person said. Mr. Vilks's depictions of the Prophet Muhammad incited protests by Muslims. Law-enforcement officials said Ms. LaRose left the U.S. for Europe in August 2009, intending to train with jihadists and try to kill Mr. Vilks.

Ms. LaRose was born in Michigan and moved to Texas as a child, said a person who knows her. At age 14 she married a man at least twice her age, this person said. She later married another man who has numerous criminal convictions in Texas, court records show. Ms. LaRose held temporary jobs, the person who knows her said. In Texas, she was arrested for driving under the influence but wasn't convicted, this person said. In 1997 she was charged in Tom Green County with writing a bad check, a criminal misdemeanor. An arrest warrant for that charge is outstanding. A law-enforcement official said Ms. LaRose appears to have converted to Islam several years ago. According to a May 2005 incident report, Ms. LaRose's sister told Pennsburg police Ms. LaRose was threatening suicide. "Colleen was highly intoxicated and having difficulty maintaining her balance," an officer reported.

In 2007, Ms. LaRose, calling herself "Fatima LaRose," registered a social-networking profile on Dailymotion.com. Among videos she posted are what appear to be depictions of attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq. Ms. LaRose lived in a second-story unit of a red-brick multifamily residence here in Pennsburg from at least 2003, when police records show she called in a report about two kittens in her yard, until August 2009. Debbie Turner, who works in a real-estate office across from the home, said she saw Ms. LaRose at a local store about a year ago. Ms. LaRose wasn't covering her face or hair, Ms. Turner said, adding, "Her hair was frizzy and she looked very rough."

"She was definitely out there," said Matthew Nelson of Pennsburg, who said Ms. LaRose lived with her former boyfriend Kurt Gorman for about five years. Mr. Gorman is president of a company in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, that supplies components to the broadcast industry and where Mr. Nelson is a plant manager. Mr. Nelson said Ms. LaRose disappeared in August, and Mr. Gorman's passport went missing. The indictment says Ms. LaRose took the U.S. passport of someone identified as "K.G." Mr. Gorman didn't return messages seeking comment.

Although investigators don't believe Ms. LaRose posed an imminent threat and wasn't plotting an attack in the U.S., she is another in a series of recent cases involving Westerners using the Internet to incite jihad. In June 2008, according to the indictment, she posted a comment on YouTube using the name "JihadJane" and said she was "desperate to do something somehow to help" Muslims. In later messages she described her wish to become a "martyr in the name of Allah," according to the indictment.

[Al-khiyal]

'Net posse tracked 'Jihad Jane' for three years

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From 2008, screenshot of one of Jihad Jane's many, many YouTube incarnations

[Al-khiyal]

Before 'jihad,' Colleen had her demons

March 11, 2010 -- Colleen LaRose was a troubled woman even before, authorities say, she went on the Internet as JihadJane and offered herself up as an avenging angel to Islamic militants. A possible suicide attempt prompted by the death of her beloved father, drinking bouts and reported legal troubles in her former home in Texas all preceded the arrest of LaRose, 46, of Pennsburg, Montgomery County, last fall for allegedly trawling the Internet in search of terrorists she could aid and pledging to die for their cause. A federal indictment was unsealed Tuesday charging LaRose, who also called herself Fatima LaRose, with providing material support to terrorists and plotting with others to kill a Swedish artist who had depicted the prophet Muhammad as a dog.

LaRose's ex-boyfriend, Kurt Gorman, 47, with whom she lived in Pennsburg, remained mystified yesterday about how the 5-foot-2 woman with dirty-blonde hair turned into an alleged terror conspirator from a person who cared for his frail mother until her death, and for his father, who died last summer. He said LaRose left without telling him last August. Authorities said it was then that she traveled to Sweden. The artist, Lars Vilks, wasn't killed but seven people were arrested Tuesday in Ireland in connection with the plot. LaRose was arrested when she returned to Philadelphia in October and has been held since without bail. She'll be arraigned March 18.

"Maybe she just went crazy" from the stress, said Gorman, who travels around the country on business. "Maybe she had too much time on her hands." Gorman said he traveled a lot for work, leaving LaRose, who didn't work, alone for weeks at a time. He said that she played games on the computer but that he never dreamed she would convert to Islam and allegedly immerse herself in jihad. Gorman, who manufactures custom parts for radio towers, said he met LaRose at Texas radio station where her father, an engineer, also was working. The father and daughter were very close, Gorman said.

The apparent suicide attempt occurred on May 21, 2005, according to a report by Upper Perkiomen police, about a month after her father's death, which had come on the heels of her brother's death. Upper Perkiomen Police Officer Michael Devlin was summoned to Gorman's Pennsburg apartment by LaRose's worried mother and sister, in Ferris, Texas, who said that Colleen had called them, drinking and brooding about her dad, and had told them that she had taken eight to 10 prescription pills. Devlin said LaRose was "highly intoxicated and having difficulty maintaining her balance." She told him she was depressed about her dad's death but "stated that she does not want to die." Devlin said he told Gorman that LaRose should get counselling.

LaRose was arrested on a charge of public drunkenness in Upper Salford Township on September 22, 2002, at which time she gave state police an address in Ferris, Texas, records show. She also was charged at that time with other offenses, including disorderly conduct. LaRose was stopped in Ferris for public intoxication in 2001 and in 2002. Court records showed that LaRose was arrested twice in 1997 in the San Antonio area, in one case on a DWI charge and the other for passing a bad check.