Jihad Jane indicted in plot to murder Swedish cartoonist

A Pennsylvania woman who called herself Jihad Jane was tied on Tuesday to an alleged assassination plot against a Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks for his controversial cartoon.

A Pennsylvania woman who called herself Jihad Jane was tied on Tuesday to an alleged assassination plot against a Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks for his controversial cartoon. In an indictment unsealed on Tuesday,federal prosecutors accused Colleen R LaRose,an American,of linking up through the Internet with militants overseas and plotting to carry out a murder.

LaRose,46,was arrested in Philadelphia in October,but her case was kept under seal. Although the indictment does not identify the target,a law enforcement official said her case was linked to the arrests on Tuesday of seven Muslims in Ireland in connection with a scheme to kill Vilks. A group linked to al-Qaeda had put a $100,000 bounty on his head for the cartoon,which the group perceived as an insult to Islam.

But the Justice Department would not confirm whether LaRose had been involved with the plot.

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Michael L Levy,the US attorney for Eastern Pennsylvania,said in a statement the case illustrated how terrorists were looking for American recruits who could blend in. It shatters any lingering thought that we can spot a terrorist based on appearance, he said.

The indictment said that in mid-2008,LaRose began posting on YouTube and other sites messages about her desire to help Muslims. A MySpace profile for a woman who refers to herself as Jihad Jane displays pictures of bloodshed and violence in West Asia scrawled with messages like Palestine We Are With You and Sympathize With Gaza.

The indictment refers to e-mail messages in which a conspirator,citing how LaRoses appearance and American passport would make it easier for her to operate undetected,allegedly directed her in March 2009 to go to Sweden to help carry out a murder.