Indictments Filed Against Jihad Jane

The US has offered up an indictment of a Pennsylvania woman, Colleen LaRose, who has been dubbed Jihad Jane for her recruitment efforts to get people to join the jihad against the US.

Colleen R. LaRose, who dubbed herself "JihadJane," was so intent on waging jihad, authorities said, that she traveled to Sweden to kill an artist in a way that would frighten "the whole Kufar (nonbeliever) world."

With blond hair and green eyes, the 46-year-old woman bragged that she could go anywhere undetected, allegedly boasting in one e-mail that it was "an honour & great pleasure to die or kill for" jihad.

"Only death will stop me here that I am so close to the target!" she boasted.

The indictment doesn't say whether the Swede was killed, but LaRose was not charged with murder. Authorities refused to identify the artist or to say whether the case was related to arrests in Ireland earlier Tuesday.

Irish police said they had detained seven people in the southern counties of Waterford and Cork in connection with an alleged plot to kill Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who had depicted the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog.

In the indictment, authorities said LaRose solicited funds for terrorist organizations, helped arrange phony passports and other travel records, and used the Internet to recruit women to kill in Europe and men in Asia. LaRose was arrested Oct. 15 in Philadelphia.

Federal officials held her up as an example of how terrorists sometimes boldly operate inside the United States, fearless of the world watching them on the Internet.

The indictment also mentions five co-conspirators, but not by name. She was busy trying to raise funds for the jihad and apparently was quite motivated in her intent to engage in jihad herself. She's frequented websites using the name JihadJane and Fatima LaRose and has had a checkered past.

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 obtained by The Washington Post.

LaRose has been in US custody since her arrest October 15.

The news of her arrest and indictment coincide with the arrest of seven people in Ireland on their involvement in a plan to murder a Swedish cartoonist who depicted Mohammad with the body of a dog.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq put a $100,000 bounty on Vilks' head after a Swedish newspaper ran his picture of Muhammad's head on a dog's body in 2007. He was put under police protection and moved to a secret location in Sweden.

UPDATE:
The DOJ has issued the following statement regarding LaRose's indictment:

The indictment charges that LaRose (an American citizen born in 1963 who resides in Montgomery County, Pa.) and five unindicted co-conspirators (located in South Asia, Eastern Europe, Western Europe and the United States) recruited men on the Internet to wage violent jihad in South Asia and Europe, and recruited women on the Internet who had passports and the ability to travel to and around Europe in support of violent jihad.

The indictment further charges that LaRose and her unindicted co-conspirators used the Internet to establish relationships with one another and to communicate regarding their plans, which included martyring themselves, soliciting funds for terrorists, soliciting passports and avoiding travel restrictions (through the collection of passports and through marriage) in order to wage violent jihad. The indictment further charges that LaRose stole another individual’s U.S. passport and transferred or attempted to transfer it in an effort to facilitate an act of international terrorism.

In addition, according to the indictment, LaRose received a direct order to kill a citizen and resident of Sweden, and to do so in a way that would frighten "the whole Kufar [non-believer] world." The indictment further charges that LaRose agreed to carry out her murder assignment, and that she and her co-conspirators discussed that her appearance and American citizenship would help her blend in while carrying out her plans. According to the indictment, LaRose traveled to Europe and tracked the intended target online in an effort to complete her task.

That Swedish citizen would be the cartoonist Lars Vilks as noted above.