Usually, when we think terrorists, we think of men. However, there are women terrorists too. And they aren’t just coming from the Middle East. Colleen LaRose, a middle aged divorced woman from Pennsylvania who went by the name “Jihad Jane” and “Fatima LaRose” online, was arrested for conspiring with other terrorists to assassinate Swedish artist, Lars Vilks. (Lars Vilks is the artist who created the cartoon of Muhammad as a dog.) LaRose traveled to Europe last year to train with and assist other terrorists in their plot to kill Vilks. She was arrested when she arrived back in the US.
LaRose’s arrest was due to the work of the Jawa Report and Youtube Smackdown who have been tracking supporters of terrorism on Youtube and twitter and having their videos on Youtube flagged for removal. She spent a lot of time on Youtube where these groups discovered her calls for violent jihad on Youtube and her use of twitter to raise funds for terrorists. You can read more about how LaRose was tracked on Youtube from the Jawa Report. In that link, the Jawa Report has described LaRose as a “middle aged sociopath woman desperate for love, lonely and isolated”. The Jawa Report has more about LaRose here.
It turns out LaRose wasn’t the only American woman involved in this terrorist plot to murder Vilks. Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, a 31 year old medical assistant, originally from Colorado, was arrested recently with several others involved in this plot. She was later freed, but still may face charges. Ramirez’s story is somewhat similar to LaRose’s. Last year Ramirez started spending a lot of time in Muslim chat rooms where she met LaRose and other extremists. In September, she left the US for Ireland to marry an Algerian man taking her son with her.
This is a still developing story. Originally, when I was going to write this post for The Spearhead there was only one American woman identified in this terrorist plot. We’ll see what happens.
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