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| Colleen LaRose aka 'Jihad Jane' may face decades in jail | |||
| 2014-01-03 | |||
| The Pennsylvania woman who called herself Jihad Jane and a teenage accomplice from Maryland provided "very significant" assistance to U.S. authorities in several terrorism investigations but still remain threats to the public, prosecutors say in new court filings. Prosecutors said Colleen LaRose, 50, should be sentenced to "decades behind bars" for her role in a failed 2009 plot to kill Lars Vilks, a Swedish artist who offended many Muslims by drawing the Prophet Mohammed on the head of a dog. After years of delay,
U.S. guidelines call for LaRose to receive a life sentence and for Khalid, who is now 20, to receive 15 years. Given their cooperation, prosecutors asked the judge to sentence LaRose to "decades behind bars" and Khalid to "less than 10 years." In a presentence filing this week, U.S. authorities reiterated what they declared when LaRose's arrest was made public in 2010 - that her gender, blond hair, Texas twang and green eyes make her case significant because she does not fit the stereotype of an Islamic terrorist. "News of LaRose's arrest spread shockwaves throughout the West, as people recognized that the face of the terrorism threat had changed forever," prosecutors Jennifer Arbittier Williams and Matthew Blue wrote. "The world is watching, and this sentencing presents an important opportunity to send a strong message to other lonely, vulnerable people who might be enticed by online extremists promising fame and honor." A 2012 Reuters investigative report described LaRose's troubled life before she converted to Islam: childhood rapes by her biological father, teenage prostitution, heavy drug abuse and failed marriages. LaRose said that her father's sexual assaults, confirmed by confidential court records, began in second grade. "I survived a lot of things that should have rightfully have killed me," LaRose said in an exclusive interview from jail in 2012.
LaRose was living with a oft-travelling boyfriend in 2007 when a romantic encounter with a Muslim man sparked an interest in Islam. After months of learning online, LaRose said, she converted to Islam and later watched videos of alleged U.S. and Israeli atrocities against Palestinian children that radicalized her. By 2008, prosecutors said, "she had managed to align herself with violent terrorists who valued her ability and persistence as their online predator, or 'hunter,'" recruiting new fighters. "I just loved my brothers so much, when they would tell me stuff, I would listen to them, no matter what," LaRose told Reuters. "And I also was ... lost." In 2009, LaRose followed instructions from an al Qaeda operative in Pakistan and flew to Europe for the plot to kill the Swedish artist. But after six weeks, largely in Ireland, LaRose became frustrated with the mission's pace and returned to Philadelphia, where she was arrested. Ali Damache, her alleged handler in Ireland, remains jailed there, fighting extradition to the United States on terrorism charges. Jamie Paulin Ramirez, who flew from Colorado to marry Damache in Ireland, pleaded guilty to related terrorism charges. She may be sentenced on Wednesday. Prosecutors said Khalid, who grew up in Pakistan, lived a double-life after moving to Maryland - as "a polite and studious 15-year-old" and "a tireless soldier for violent jihad." He helped al Qaeda by translating videos from Urdu to English, inciting others, and aided LaRose as she smuggled a stolen U.S. passport to a terrorist, they said. After pleading guilty, LaRose and Khalid each met more than 20 times with U.S. authorities, providing information about multiple targets. In particular, authorities cited Khalid's insight into al Qaeda's propaganda and recruitment efforts.
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| Ireland: Suspect in Terrorism Case Faces Extradition to U.S. | |
| 2013-03-01 | |
The United States government has petitioned the Irish High Court to extradite an Algerian man living in Ireland on terrorism charges relating to a plot to assassinate a Swedish artist, officials said Thursday. The United States alleges that the man, Ali Charaf Damache,
On Wednesday, Mr. Damache pleaded guilty in the Waterford Circuit Court to making a menacing phone call to an American peace activist, a charge for which he was arrested and detained in 2010. The judge sentenced him to time served and released him, but Mr. Damache was immediately rearrested on the American extradition warrant. Mr. Damache arrived in Ireland in 2000 and married an Irish woman in 2002. The relationship ended in 2008 and he then married an American citizen, Jamie Paulin Ramirez. Ms. Ramirez has pleaded guilty in the United States to charges of conspiring with Colleen LaRose, also known as Jihad Jane, to support and train terrorists. | |
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| Honor student pleads guilty in Jihad Jane plot | ||||||
| 2012-05-07 | ||||||
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Maryland honor student pleaded guilty Friday to conspiring to help a Pennsylvania woman known as "Jihad Jane" plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist who had offended some Muslims. Mohammed Hassan Khalid, 18, is believed to be the youngest person ever charged with terrorism in a U.S. civilian court. He faces a sentence as high as 15 years in prison. Khalid, who moved with his family from Pakistan to suburban Baltimore in 2008, was a high school student who had been accepted on a full scholarship at prestigious Johns Hopkins University.
During a short hearing at the federal courthouse in Philadelphia, officials said, Khalid pleaded guilty to a single charge of providing material support to terrorists. Khalid's lawyer, Jeffrey Lindy of Philadelphia, said in an interview afterward: "This is saddest case I've ever been involved with in my career. He's a smart kid who understands what's happening. But how much can an 18-year-old brain comprehend about a life-altering experience like this?"
Khalid also communicated with one of the plot's alleged leaders, Ali Charaf Damache, an Algerian living in Ireland. Damache, who used the alias "Black Flag," is charged with conspiracy to provide material support for terrorists. He was arrested in 2010 in Ireland on an unrelated charge and the United States is seeking to extradite him on the American terror charges.
The FBI arrested Khalid in July, when he was still a juvenile, but the case was not unsealed until September, when he turned 18. Under the plea agreement, he faces adult charges. In a statement, Zane Memeger, the U.S. Attorney in Philadelphia, highlighted Khalid's youth. "This case has demonstrated that age is not a limiter to threats to our nation's security," Memeger said. "Regardless of a defendant's age or background, we are committed to keeping our communities and our country safe through the investigation and prosecution of violent extremist activity." Khalid was a legal U.S. resident, but, unlike his siblings and parents, he did not become a naturalized American citizen. As a result, Lindy said, Khalid is likely to be deported back to Pakistan after he finishes serving his U.S. sentence.
U.S. District Judge Petrese B. Tucker in Philadelphia has not set a sentencing date for any of the defendants. | ||||||
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| Pakistan-born US teen pleads guilty in terror case |
| 2012-05-05 |
| A Pakistan-born US teen pleaded guilty Friday to terror charges for offering assistance to a woman who called herself "Jihad Jane" and supported a terror cell bent on waging a Muslim holy war in Europe. The 18-year-old Mohammad Hassan Khalid faces a 15-year prison sentence for a single count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists for his offer to raise money and recruit terrorists. Khalid, then 17, was arrested last July after he corresponded with a woman who later admitted plotting to kill a Swedish artist who had offended Muslims. He was 15 when he began online chats with Colleen LaRose, the US woman calling herself Jihad Jane. She now faces life in prison. Khalid was held in FBI custody as a juvenile before being indicted after turning 18. Khalid and his family are legal immigrants from Pakistan, and he could be deported following completion of his prison term. A sentencing date wasn't immediately set. Khalid, an honors student, had been offered a full scholarship to prestigious Johns Hopkins University. But online, he pledged to forward money to LaRose for her to pass on to an Irish terror cell and hid a passport she sent him, according to authorities. LaRose was being watched by the FBI after posting online videos in which she vowed to kill or die for the jihadist cause. LaRose was arrested in November 2009 after returning to the United States from Ireland, where authorities said she traveled after agreeing to marry an online contact from South Asia and become a martyr. LaRose intended to murder Swedish artist Lars Vilks for depicting the prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog, authorities said. Investigators said there's no evidence LaRose ever made it to Sweden. Khalid was indicted along with Ali Charaf Damache, an Irish citizen from Algeria who married another US woman, Jamie Paulin-Ramirez. The women were sought for their Western looks and passports, authorities have said. Damache, known as Black Flag, was charged in the Khalid indictment. Neither woman has been sentenced. |
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| Colorado "Jihad Jane" To Plead Guilty |
| 2011-03-08 |
| News-sourcer-who-shall-not-be-named EFL and Fair Use A woman described as a troubled single mother Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, 32, of Leadville, Colo., faces up to 15 years in prison. An April indictment charges that she accepted an invitation from co-defendant Colleen LaRose another fugly Jihadi-wannabe to move to Ireland to help work toward a Muslim holy war. Paulin-Ramirez arrived in Ireland on Sept. 11, 2009, and married an Algerian terrorism suspect the same day. A |
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| Jihad Jane changes plea to guilty |
| 2011-02-02 |
| A Pennsylvania woman who called herself "Jihad Jane" online pleaded guilty Tuesday to her role in a plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist who had offended Muslims. Colleen LaRose, 47, helped foreign terror suspects intent on starting a holy war in Europe and South Asia, prosecutors said. LaRose, who also was accused of using the online screen name "Fatima LaRose," has been in custody since October 2009 and faced a possible life sentence under charges in a four-count indictment. She and co-defendant Jamie Paulin-Ramirez of Leadville, Colo., are the rare U.S. women charged with terrorism. Paulin-Ramirez has pleaded not guilty since she was arrested in Ireland with other terror suspects. The March 2010 indictment charged LaRose with conspiring with jihadist fighters and pledging to commit murder in the name of a Muslim holy war, or jihad. The indictment was announced hours after authorities arrested seven suspected terrorists in Ireland allegedly linked to LaRose. |
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| The Fort Hood attack: Unresolved |
| 2010-04-30 |
| By Rep. John Carter Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Al-Qaeda leader from the Washington, D.C. area but now hiding in Yemen, played a role in the 9-11 attacks, along with attempted attacks in 2006 on the Canadian Parliament and in 2007 against U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Then on November 5, 2009, he succeeded in helping instigate the deadly attack on Fort Hood, Texas leaving 14 Americans dead and 30 wounded. Al-Awlaki then dispatched a second assassin to bomb a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day, which attempt fortunately failed. Awlaki has since released a video claiming credit for the Fort Hood and airliner attacks, acknowledging his role, and praising the attackers. Yet the Obama Administration continues to deny the Fort Hood attack was terrorism, failed to grant the casualties the same status as that given casualties from the 2001 Pentagon attack, conspicuously omitted even mention of the words "radical Islamic terrorism" in the official DOD report on the shootings, and will not acknowledge the role of political-correctness in stifling whistleblower warnings of the impending attack. Now the Administration is refusing to fully comply with a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee subpoena that the Pentagon share documents and witnesses concerning the incident. Senate Homeland Security Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Ranking Minority Member Susan Collins (R-MA) issued the subpoena after the Administration refused to provide those documents on the request of the committee. The Administration bases their denial on the argument that releasing the information might endanger their prosecution of Major Nidal Hasan. As a state judge who presided over murder trials for 20 years before coming to Congress, that's ludicrous. Any prosecutor who can't win a conviction against Hasan with literally dozens of eyewitnesses doesn't need to be a prosecutor. House and Senate members are not convinced that the Pentagon is taking the necessary steps to provide maximum deterrance to similar attacks in the future, or to respond to the aftermath of this attack. This is why subpoenas have been issued, and why I have introduced legislation to remedy these shortcomings. As to the specific bills I introduced this year dealing with the Fort Hood attack, no floor or committee action has yet been taken, but the text of the bills are under consideration for inclusion in this year's Defense Authorization Act. The Fort Hood Families Benefits Protection Act, HR 4791 in the House and S 2807 by Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) in the Senate, would award both military and civilian casualties of the Fort Hood attack the same status as that awarded unilaterally by the Department of Defense to the casualties of the Pentagon attack on September 11, 2001. All casualties would be deemed eligible for the Purple Heart or the DOD civilian award equivalent. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has also been asked to make that determination unilaterally as did former Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in 2001. The Military Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, HR 4267, protects service members from politically-correct disciplinary action for reporting or taking protective steps against radical Islamic threats. There is a new Al-Qaeda attack scheme against America that has emerged since 2001, that must be recognized by the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security. "Lone wolves" are being actively recruited by Al-Awlaki and his like over the internet, and encouraged to attack alone if necessary. The attackers may be dysfunctional individuals or even mentally unbalanced, but that makes no difference. The results of the attack are all that matter to Al-Qaeda. Major Hasan, the underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, Colleen Rose and Jamie Paulin-Ramirez - the American women implicated in the plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist for drawing Mohammed - all are concrete examples of this new Al-Qaeda attack strategy. It is a strategy that must be recognized, trained for, and guarded against by our Armed Forces and law enforcement agencies. Refusing to acknowledge reality is not the way to make that happen. |
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| Jihad Jane trial could be postponed |
| 2010-04-29 |
| Two women accused of aiding terrorists abroad are requesting more time to prepare their case, and a pre-trial conference is scheduled for May 3 in federal court in Philadelphia. Attorneys for Colleen R. LaRose, a.k.a "Jihad Jane," and Jamie Paulin Ramirez filed a motion to have the case designated "complex," and if Judge Petrese B. Tucker grants the motion it would give both sides more time to prepare for trial. |
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| Colorado mom charged in terror case 'overwhelmed and distraught' |
| 2010-04-04 |
 A Colorado woman who was indicted on terrorism charges Friday is "overwhelmed and distraught and very much in tears with concern for her son," her lawyer said Saturday.Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, 31, was charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. Her lawyer, Jeremy Ibrahim, said he met with her for the first time on Saturday. Was this guy on Al Qaeda's "Approved Lawyers" list? Is that the ACLU short list or the Center for Constitutional Rights list? |
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| 2nd American Woman Charged in Jihad Jane Case |
| 2010-04-03 |
| Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, 31, was arrested in Philadelphia on Friday after arriving from Ireland. Last month, authorities in Ireland detained Paulin-Ramirez, originally from Colorado, and six others while investigating an alleged plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist whose drawing had offended many Muslims. An earlier WSJ article gave this background: Her stepfather. Mr. Mott, said that Federal Bureau of Investigation agents showed up at his door and questioned him, and took his stepdaughter's computer. She had added a keyboard with Arabic keys, he said. |
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| Terror Networks | |
| That Second American Woman: About Jihad Jamie | |
| 2010-03-14 | |
On Sept. 11, 2009 she suddenly left Leadville, Colo., a small town in the Rocky Mountains, for Denver, then for New York, to meet and marry a Muslim man she connected with online, her family says. Ms. Paulin-Ramirez, who is 5-foot-11 and blonde, phoned her mother and stepfather in Leadville, providing them with an address in Waterford, Ireland, they say. Now, she is in the custody of the Irish police, along with six other individuals, arrested as part of an investigation into a conspiracy to commit murder, according to officials familiar with the case. The nature of the authorities' suspicions about Ms. Paulin-Ramirez couldn't be determined on Friday. | |
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| Britain |
| Mom says daughter held in Ireland in terror plot |
| 2010-03-13 |
| NO LINK: Tipper, please provide one ... A 31-year-old mother from Colorado was one of seven Muslims arrested this week in Ireland in an alleged plot to assassinate Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, the woman's parents said Friday. Christine Mott of Leadville said she was told of the arrest of her daughter, Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, in the case by the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies. Jihad Jamie ... She told The Associated Press that her daughter disappeared last September and later told her family she went to Ireland with her 6-year-old son and married an Algerian whom she met online. Irish authorities only identified the seven as three Algerians, a Libyan, a Palestinian, a Croatian and an American woman married to one of the Algerians. They were arrested Tuesday, hours before U.S. authorities unveiled a terror indictment against Colleen LaRose, 46, of Philadelphia, who bills herself as "Jihad Jane". LaRose is accused of plotting with others to kill Vilks because of his 2007 sketch depicting the head of the Muslim prophet Muhammad on a dog's body. The drawing provoked terror front Al-Qaida in Iraq to offer a $100,000 bounty for his slaying. Denver FBI officials say they can't confirm that the FBI had contacted Mott about the case. The U.S. Justice Department did not immediately return a call for comment early Saturday. The Wall Street Journal, quoting anonymous sources familiar with the case, reported on its Web site that Paulin-Ramirez was being held in the alleged plot. Her stepfather, George Mott, said the FBI seized a desktop computer in late September but did not tell the family what they found. The Motts said they're concerned for the welfare of their grandson, who has been placed in the custody of Ireland's foster care system. "This is about my baby," Christine Mott said. "We need some help to get this baby back. I'm concerned about my daughter but I'm concerned about our baby boy because he shouldn't be caught in the middle of this." The Motts said Paulin-Ramirez announced to her family last spring that she was converting to Islam and began wearing headscarves. "It came out of left field," Christine Mott said. "I knew she was talking to these people online... What caused her to turn her back on her country, on her family and become this person? I don't know how or why. All I know is she was in contact with this Jihad Jane. "The only thing I could think of is that they brainwashed her." Christine Mott said her daughter was getting 4.0 grades as she studied to become a nurse practioner and was working a $30,000 job at Eagle Valley Medical Clinic in nearby Edwards. |
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