Case of Lars Vilks and Colleen LaRose ("JihadJane")

Summary: Two American women, both converts to Islam, were arrested in connection with an alleged plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist who had drawn the head of the Prophet Mohammad on the body of a dog. Colleen Renee LaRose, whom authorities said went by the online nicknames of "JihadJane" and "Fatima LaRose," was arrested in October 2009; her arrest was not announced until March 2010, when the second American suspect, Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, was arrested in Ireland along with several male suspects. Paulin-Ramirez was soon released by Irish authorities, but on April 2, 2010, she flew to Philadelphia, where she was arrested on charges that she had joined LaRose in the plot. The cartoon by Vilks, first published in 2007, bore similarities--but was not part of--a series of cartoons published in Denmark in 2005 which aroused the ire of Muslims and led to an alleged murder plot against a cartoonist. The allegations against LaRose and Paulin-Ramirez were the latest in a string of incidents involving American converts to Islam who were accused of participating in terrorist plots linked to fundamentalist Islamist groups including--in the case of the alleged Vilks conspiracy--Al Qaeda, which had offered an award for his killing.

Two American female converts to Islam, Colleen Renee LaRose, age 46, and Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, age 31, were accused in 2009 and 2010 respectively of separately traveling to Europe in 2009 to participate in a violent jihad, or Islamist religious war, that included a murder plot against a Swedish cartoonist. U.S. authorities alleged that LaRose recruited Paulin-Ramirez via online conversations in a plot to murder Lars Vilks, who in 2007 drew a cartoon depicting the head of the Prophet Mohammad on the body of a dog; it was published in a regional Swedish newspaper as part of an editorial. The two women were the latest in a series of Americans accused of plotting terrorist attacks linked to Islamists.

LaRose, of Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, whom authorities said went by the online names "JihadJane" and "Fatima LaRose," was arrested in October 2009 after returning to the United States from Europe. LaRose pleaded innocent. Her arrest was not announced until March 9, 2010, when Irish police arrested seven people, including American Paulin-Ramirez and her Algerian husband, on charges of participating in the plot to murder Vilks.

Paulin-Ramirez was released by Irish authorities within five days of her arrest. On April 2, 2010, she flew to Philadelphia, where she was arrested by U.S. authorities on charges of plotting to kill Vilks.

Both LaRose and Paulin-Ramirez were described by authorities as American converts to Islam. They had met via an online chat group, and authorities said LaRose invited Paulin-Ramirez to join her in Europe. There, Paulin-Ramirez met Ali Charaf Damache of Algeria and, according to some accounts, married him within a day.

Background: Cartoon. The cartoon drawn by Vilks was first published in 2007 by the Swedish regional paper Nerikes Allehanda to illustrate an editorial about freedom of expression. It was republished in 2010--in print, but not on Web sites--by three other newspapers to illustrate news accounts of the alleged murder plot. The Vilks cartoon followed--but was separate from--publication of a dozen cartoons in September 2005 in the conservative Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Those cartoons were also denounced by Muslims as disrespectful (Islam bars any depiction of Mohammad), and their publication led to rioting in several cities in the Islamic world, as well as threats of retaliation against the newspaper and individual cartoonists. (See Background Information Summary on Mohammad Cartoons Protests in this database.) In February 2008 Danish police arrested three men and accused them of plotting to kill one of the original cartoonists. On January 1, 2010, Danish police arrested an immigrant from Somalia and accused him of trying, unsuccessfully, to attack cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, who had taken refuge in a specially reinforced bathroom in his house outside Aarhus, Denmark.

In October 2009, American authorities in Chicago arrested David Headley (nee Daood Gilani; see separate Background Information Summary in this database), an American, and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, on charges of plotting to attack Jyllands-Posten and its employees. Headley was also charged with helping plan the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, in November 2008, which was blamed on the Pakistani Islamist organization Lashkar-e-Toiba.

The Vilks cartoon at the center of the alleged conspiracy in 2010 was first published in 2007. After its publication, Al Qaeda offered to pay $100,000 to anyone who assassinated Vilks, and an additional $50,000 if the assassin cut his throat so that he was "slaughtered like a lamb." According to subsequent news interviews, Vilks installed a booby-trapped sculpture and reinforced a room in his house in southern Sweden to protect himself in case of an attack.

In news reports, he was quoted as saying he had learned from American news media that an American woman had been accused of plotting to kill him.

Background of Colleen LaRose. The indictment against LaRose, to which she pleaded not guilty and which coincided with arrests in Ireland linked to Vilks, did not specify the plot against the Swedish cartoonist. Rather, the head of the Justice Department's national security division, David Kris, said the indictment "alleges that a woman from suburban America agreed to carry out murder overseas and to provide material support to terrorists." Kris said the indictment "underscores the evolving nature of the threat we face." LaRose pleaded not guilty.

According to American authorities, LaRose was a convert to Islam who posted a video on YouTube in June 2008 in which she said she wanted to help the "suffering Muslim people." The indictment said she had sent email messages to unspecified individuals offering both to become a "martyr" and to use her nationality and appearance--she is blonde and has green eyes--to more easily avoid detection. She was accused of agreeing, in March 2009, to marry another conspirator from a south Asian country in order to help him gain residency in Europe. He, in turn, was accused in the indictment of having urged LaRose to travel to Sweden to kill a man, not named but widely thought to have been Vilks. The indictment said LaRose tried to raise money for the venture via the Internet and to recruit others. It also accused her of lying to the FBI. LaRose was arrested upon returning to the United States in October 2009 on charges related to the theft the previous August of an American passport belonging to Kurt Gorman, her companion, which the indictment accused her of planning to give to a fellow conspirator to enter Sweden in the plot to kill Vilks.

Arrests in Ireland. In March 2010 Irish police arrested seven people in connection with the alleged plot to kill Vilks. Within a few days, five of those arrested had been released, including American citizen Jamie Paulin-Ramirez. On April 2, 2010, she flew to Philadelphia, where she was arrested on charges that she had joined LaRose in the plot. The two still held by Irish authorities included Ali Charaf Damache, an Algerian who had been living with--or was married to, by some accounts--Paulin-Ramirez. He was accused of making a menacing telephone call. Also held by Irish authorities was Abdul Salam al-Jahani, a Libyan accused of an immigration offense. Authorities said more charges might be forthcoming later.

Other American Conspiracies. LaRose and Paulin-Ramirez were most recent in a string of such individuals arrested in plots--or actions--involving terrorists linked to fundamentalist Islam. Others included:

• In late July 2009 federal officials charged eight men, including seven from North Carolina, with conspiracy to conduct religious war (jihad) outside the United States. The alleged mastermind and leader of the plot was Daniel Boyd, reputed to have been trained in jihadist camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the period 1989-1992. Two of his sons were also among the defendants. Authorities said they found a store of weapons and ammunition at the Boyd home in North Carolina. An eighth accused member of the group was reputed to be in Pakistan.
• An alleged plot to plant bombs on the U.S. Army base at Fort Dix, New Jersey, near Philadelphia, was foiled in May 2007 with the arrest of six immigrants. All six men were Muslims, although the government said they had no contact with Al Qaeda or other foreign groups, but rather had studied videotapes of Al Qaeda leaders. They had planned to plant bombs while delivering pizzas to the army base, according to charges against them. In December 2008 five of the men were convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, but acquitted of attempted murder; they were sentenced to prison terms ranging from life in prison without parole to 33 years. A sixth defendant was convicted in March 2008 of supplying three of the convicted plotters with guns and ammunition. The Fort Dix plot was one in a series involving homegrown terrorists alleged to have been inspired by Al Qaeda to undertake their own terrorist actions.
• In September 2009 federal agents arrested Najibullah Zazi, an Afghan native who had moved to New York City as a boy and later worked as an airport shuttle driver in Denver, Colorado, on charges of plotting to make and use a bomb in a terrorist attack, possibly on a mass transit facility in the New York area. The plot was blamed on Al Qaeda. After initially pleading not guilty, in February 2010 Zazi pleaded guilty to conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiring to commit murder in a foreign country, and providing material support to a terrorist organization. His father and two friends from New York also faced charges in the case. The FBI said they had tracked Zazi as he drove the bomb-making materials to New York before he suddenly drove back to Aurora, Colorado, a Denver suburb, where he was arrested.
• Michael Finton, an American-born convert to Islam, was indicted in September 2009 on charges of attempting to blow up the federal building in Springfield, Illinois. Finton was a former convict arrested for a parole violation (changing his residence without notifying his parole officer). As a result of that arrest, authorities found a notebook in which Finton had allegedly expressed a desire to join an Islamic jihad. Thereafter federal officials, according to the affidavit outlining charges against Finton, decided to "control" his actions, which eventually led to Finton parking a van he thought was loaded with explosives outside the federal building and then using a cell phone provided by the FBI in order--he thought--to detonate the explosives, whereupon he was arrested.
• Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, 19, a Jordanian, was arrested on September 24, 2009, in Dallas, Texas, and accused of planting what he thought was a car bomb in the underground parking garage of the Fountain Place office building. Smadi had no known ties to terrorist organization, nor any accomplices besides undercover agents.

Bibliography

Hines, Nico and David Charter. "Muhammad cartoonist Larks Vilks installs panic room and booby-trapped art." Times (of London) Online, March 10, 2010.

Sharrock, David. "Seven Muslims arrested over 'plot to kill cartoonist.'" Times (of London) Online. March 10, 2010. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7055282.ece