hollywoodtone.blogspot.com 'Jihad Jane' given 10 years in international terror plot
hollywoodtone.blogspot.com 'Jihad Jane' given 10 years in international terror plot
A Pennsylvania woman who calls herself "Jihad Jane" was sentenced Monday to 10 years in federal prison for a terror plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist, and providing material support to terrorists.
The woman, Colleen LaRose, 50, who faced potential life in prison, was given the reduced sentence at the request of federal prosecutors because of her extensive cooperation with investigators. Prosecutors charged in a 2010 indictment that LaRose solicited men and women online who had passports and were free to travel around Europe "in support of violent jihad," the indictment alleged. According to the indictment from June 2008 through August of that year, LaRose sent numerous emails to contacts telling them she was "a jihadist" and wanted to raise money to support various overseas terror groups. During an email exchange in March 2009 with an unnamed conspirator, she agreed to marry him so she could freely travel overseas and live in a undisclosed European country, according to the indictment. LaRose agreed in a March 22, 2009 email to a conspirator that she would travel to Sweeden and kill "RS#1," saying, "i will make this my goal till i achieve it or die trying," the Indictment alleged. While not identified in the indictment, the "RS#1" prosecutors were referring to is Lars Vilks, a "Sweedish cartoonist who drew a satirical picture of the head of the prophet Muhammad on top of a dog's body," according to a report in The Guardian. LaRose was arrested on October 16, 2009 at the Philadelphia airport after she returned from London, and told FBI Agents that if they released her she was planning a suicide attack against U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a NBC report. “Today’s sentence sends a strong message to those attracted to a terrorist ideology,” said Special Agent in Charge Edward J. Hanko. He added, "Our Joint Terrorism Task Forces and partners in the law enforcement and intelligence communities remain committed to tracking terrorists at every level, whomever and wherever they are,” according to a press release from Zane Memeger, U.S. Attorney in Philadelphia. This is not the first time LaRose has been arrested. According to the Washington Post "She has been married at least twice and, over several years since the mid-1980s, had been arrested in South Texas for writing bad checks and driving while intoxicated, according to court records." A search of Pennsylvania online court records by Digital Journal failed to reveal LaRose had any contacts with law enforcement officials while she lived in Pennsylvania.
hollywoodtone.blogspot.com 'Jihad Jane' given 10 years in international terror plot