The arrest of a suburban Pennsylvania woman known by the alias Jihad Jane, who allegedly plotted with Islamic radicals abroad to kill a Swedish cartoonist, has raised concerns about homegrown terrorists in the United States who may be difficult to spot.
"This woman might as well have advertised in the Washington Post," former White House counterterrorism official and ABC News consultant Richard Clarke said on "Good Morning America" today. "It was easy for the FBI to find her but there are other people who are much more covert.
"There will likely be more attacks," Clarke added. "Hopefully, they will be small and hopefully we can catch them early."
Colleen R. LaRose, 46, of Montgomery, Pa., was arrested in October 2009 and charged with trying to recruit Islamic fighters and plotting to assassinate a Swedish cartoonist who made fun of prophet Mohammed, according to a federal indictment unsealed today.
The FBI had kept the case secret while it looked for more suspects in the United States and abroad. The case was made public after seven men were arrested in Ireland this week, suspected of plotting to kill the Swedish cartoonist.
LaRose's case is rare, Clark said, but it shows the capability of international dissident groups to reach out to Americans via the Internet.
"This is a very rare case of a disturbed woman," he said, but it signifies how "the Internet not only allows them to communicate, it allows them to recruit."
Their persuasive speeches and sermons, which have been effective in recruiting men and women in the Middle East, are "beginning to work for some misfits in the United States," he said.
A blonde American woman who went under the online alias "Jihad Jane" has been accused of plotting to murder a Swedish cartoonist for drawing a picture of the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog, it emerged today.
Colleen LaRose, a 46-year-old Muslim convert from Pennsylvania, was said by prosecutors to have used the internet to make contact with jihadists overseas and was persuaded to use the fact that she was a white American to get through security surrounding the artist, Lars Vilks.
A US Justice Department official said last night that the case "shatters any lingering thought that we can spot a terrorist based on appearance".
Ms LaRose was arrested in Philadelphia in October last year, but her indictment remained sealed until after the arrest in Ireland yesterday of seven people - three women and four men - involved in a suspected plot to murder Mr Vilks.
The cartoonist has been holed up in a rural hideout since his cartoon appeared in a Swedish newspaper in 2007, a year when the publication of similar cartoons in Denmark sparked violent protests across the Islamic world.
Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the Prophet - even favourable - for fear that it could lead to idolatry, and al-Qaeda put a bounty of $100,000 on Mr Vilks's head.
Three Swedish papers reprinted his image today in a gesture of solidarity. One, Dagens Nyheter said in an editorial that "Vilks doesn’t stand alone in this conflict. A threat against him is, in the long term, also a threat against all Swedes."
A federal indictment charges that Ms LaRose, who also called herself Fatima Rose, agreed to kill Mr Vilks on orders from the unnamed terror contacts and went to Europe to carry out the killing.
It also alleged that Ms LaRose, who has blond hair and blue-green eyes, indicated in her online conversations that she thought her appearance would help her move freely in Sweden to carry out the attack.
The indictment says that Ms LaRose posted a YouTube video as JihadJane in June 2008 saying she was "desperate to do something somehow to help" Muslims.
Within months, she was in contact with Jihadists in Europe and Asha and agreed to marry a South Asian man to get him into Europe.
In March last year the same man told her via e-mail to go to Sweden, find Mr Vilks "and kill him".
According to the indictment, Mr LaRose replied: "i will make this my goal till i achieve it or die trying."
Ms LaRose is said to have used the name JihadJane to create a MySpace page on which she described herself as a woman who had "reverted to Islam".
"I live in Pennsylvania, originally from Texas. I have recently (a couple months) reverted to Islam and I can safely say that of all the things I have ever done in my lifetime, becoming Muslim is what I am the proudest of," she wrote.
Elsewhere, the user lists her heroes as "Skeikh OBL", an apparent reference to Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, and "The brothers in... Jihad".
The indictment and material released by SITE, a US group that monitors extremists, suggest that Ms LaRose had an active online presence, despite being repeatedly banned from websites including YouTube and despite her fears that she was under surveillance.
Michael Levy, a US Justice Department attorney, said that the case "demonstrates that terrorists are looking for Americans to join them in their cause, and it shatters any lingering thought that we can spot a terrorist based on appearance".
David Kris, an assistant attorney general at the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said that the government would have to remain vigilant.
"Today’s indictment, which alleges that a woman from suburban America agreed to carry out murder overseas and to provide material support to terrorists, underscores the evolving nature of the threat we face," he said.
Ms LaRose is accused of planning to use her appearance to help Jihad
Colleen LaRose, as shown in a police mugshot
Jihad Jane: a photograph from a web page set up by the terror suspect
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