Feed: “Jihad Jane” headed for slammer - AggScore: 12.9

“Jihad Jane” headed for slammer

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caption id alignalignleft width204 captionThe woman known to Americans as Jihad Jane is facing the rest of her life locked up in prison. Photo NewswithViews img srchttpcdn2b.examiner.comsitesdefaultfilesstyleslargehash5df35df39960a75a0f34c4ae1b84ec84691e.jpg alt width204 height127 captionThePennsylvaniaterror suspectdubbed Jihad Jane by cops and news reporters todaypleaded guilty to the charges ofplotting to kill a Swedish cartoonist, providing material support to terrorists, and other criminal charges, according to a report from the Terrorism Committee of the National Association of Chiefs of Police.divThe 47year old Colleen LaRose,during an allocutionhearing in aPhiladelphia federal courtroom, admitted her role in a plot with othersIslamic terroriststo kill theartist who hadcreated a newspaper cartoon that portrayedthe Prophet Mohammed in a way thatwas deemedoffensive to Muslims.divLaRose, who has been in U.S. custody for more than a year, is facing a life sentence when she appears beforea federal judge again on March 3.Prosecutors said LaRose, who is from Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, used Internetscreen namessuch as Jihad Jane, Fatima LaRose, ExtremeSister4Life and SisterOFTerror.Federal investigatorshad accused herof using multiple email and YouTube accounts, other web sites and various online usernames and passwordsto publish violent, radical Islamistliterature and videos. She also used the Internetto raise moneyfor terrorists.LaRoseoriginally pleaded not guilty in March 2010after a federal grand jury indictment alleged that she recruited men online to wage violent jihad, or holy war, in Asia and Europe.Her casedisturbed U.S.policymakersby revealing the threat of American citizensbecoming radicalized byterrorist groups and beingemployed as suicide bombers, mules people used to carry contrabandand participants in terrorism plots.Todays guilty plea, by a woman from suburban America who plotted with others to commit murder overseas and to provide material support to terrorists, underscores the evolving nature of the threat we face, said David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security.According to the indictment, LaRosebragged tococonspiratorsthat beinga blond, white woman would allow her to avoid detection as an Islamic terrorist.She has a personalhistory of broken marriages and petty crime. In 2009, she reportedlytraveled to Europe where she planned to trainat a terrorist campand thenfind and kill the Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks who drew the controversial Mohammed cartoon that resulted in outcries and riots within Muslim nations.The indictmentrevealedthatLaRose posted a comment on YouTube in 2008 that she was desperate to do something somehow to help the suffering Muslim people.The charges against her became public in March after the arrest of seven other people in Ireland in connection with a suspected plot to kill the man they saiddishonored the holy prophet Mohammed.Justice Department officials said LaRose received a direct order to kill the cartoonist and agreed to carry out her murder assignment.If the case had gone to trial, prosecutorsclaimed they would have proven that LaRose worked obsessively on her computer to communicate with, recruit and incite other jihadists.A second American woman, Jamie PaulinRamirez of Colorado, was among those arrested and has pleaded not guilty to similar charges in federal court in Philadelphia of plotting to kill Vilks. Her trial is scheduled for later this year.