Pa. Woman Indicted on Terror Charges

Feds indicted Colleen R. LaRose, a Pennsylvania woman, for participating in a terrorist plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist, MSNBC reported Tuesday. LaRose—known as JihadJane and Fatima LaRosa—apparently began her involvement with terrorists in June 2008, when she commented on YouTube that she was “desperate to do something to help” Muslims. Six months later, someone offered to join her and to be a martyr. LaRose corresponded with people overseas, investigators say, before traveling to Europe and joining a group that hoped to assassinate Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, on whose head al Qaeda had issued a $100,000 bounty. (In August 2007, a newspaper published Vilks’ cartoon showing the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog.) LaRose tried to recruit others online while in Europe, but eventually returned home after deciding those in her group weren’t serious enough about their cause. LaRose was arrested last October. Charges against her include 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.