US ‘Jihad Jane’ in dock for recruiting terrorists

Washington, March 10: A US woman operating online under the name “Jihad Jane” recruited jihadist fighters in the United States, Europe and Asia in a bid to carry out terror plots “or die trying,” prosecutors said on Tuesday.

US authorities said middle-aged Pennsylvania resident Colleen LaRose, who was arrested in October 2009, spent more than a year networking with would-be attackers around the world.

She sought to recruit men and women, to raise money and even agreed to carry out the murder of a Swedish resident, pledging “only death will stop me,” an indictment charged.

The justice department unsealed the indictment against LaRose just hours after Irish police arrested seven people accused of plotting to kill a Swedish cartoonist.

She faces charges of “conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, making false statements to a government official and attempted identity theft,” the indictment said.

LaRose, born in 1963, is also accused of recruiting women “who had passports and the ability to travel to and around Europe in support of violent jihad,” and of having stolen a US passport “and transferred or attempted to transfer it in an effort to facilitate an act of international terrorism.”

If convicted of the charges against her, LaRose could face life in prison and a one million dollar fine. The indictment claims she received two messages in March 2009 from an individual in a South Asian country instructing her to kill an unnamed Swedish resident.

“Kill him... this is what i say to u,” the indictment quotes one message as saying.

“Kill (the individual) in a way that the whole Kufar (non-believer) world get frightened,” the second said. “I will make this my goal till i achieve it or die trying,” LaRose allegedly responded.

The justice department declined to comment on whether LaRose was connected to the arrest of four men and three women in Ireland over an alleged plot to kill Swedish cartoonist, Mr Lars Vilks.

An Al Qaeda-linked group has placed a $100,000 bounty on his head in response to a cartoon he drew depicting the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog.