Philly: Prosecutors say ‘Jihad Jane’ deserves lengthy sentence
Posted on January 5, 2014 by creeping
Aka Colleen LaRat. via Prosecutors say ‘JihadJane’ deserves lengthy sentence – Philly.com.
Despite her “very significant” cooperation in terrorism investigations in the United States and abroad, a Montgomery County woman arrested in 2009 for working with terrorists under the moniker “JihadJane” remains a danger and should spend several decades behind bars, federal prosecutors say.
In documents filed before a sentencing hearing scheduled for Monday, government lawyers described Colleen LaRose, 50, as an “aggressive, hardworking” force in the online extremist community.
Her sentencing provides an opportunity to “send a strong message to other lonely, vulnerable people who might be enticed by online extremists promising fame and honor,” Jennifer Arbittier Williams and Matthew F. Blue wrote.
In their filings, the lawyers cited prison letters from as recently as 2012 in which LaRose referred to Americans as “filthy kafir pigs,” and described her assignment to kill a Swedish cartoonist whose work offended some Muslims as an honor.
“LaRose’s sincere efforts at cooperation do not erase the harm that she has caused, nor the government’s grave concern that she remains a danger,” they wrote. “The world is watching, and this sentencing presents an important opportunity to send a strong message.”
LaRose’s attorney, Mark Wilson, did not return calls for comment Thursday. His client faces up to a life sentence after pleading guilty in 2011 to providing material support to terrorists.
With LaRose’s blond hair, green eyes, and deep southern twang, the case garnered international attention and changed U.S. officials’ expectations of what to fear from homegrown extremist threats, prosecutors said.
In online forums, she spewed violent anti-American vitriol and recruited other extremists for training in South Asia. She boasted of the ability her American background and looks gave her to fly beneath the radar of counterterrorism investigators.
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She was arrested in Philadelphia soon after returning to the United States in frustration over the slow pace of the conspirators’ progress.
Almost immediately, LaRose began cooperating “diligently, candidly, and tirelessly” with federal counterterrorism investigators, prosecutors said in their court filings this week. Her testimony before a grand jury in 2011 led to charges against Ali Charaf Damache, her alleged handler in Ireland, and others.
Damache remains imprisoned in Ireland, fighting extradition to the United States.
Throughout, though, she has rarely appeared remorseful, Williams wrote.
“LaRose seemed to take pleasure and even pride recounting her glory days as ‘the hunter,’ ” she said. “Her demeanor continued to grow wistful – despite the passage of time – when speaking with government agents about some of her coconspirators and their plans.”
Two of LaRose’s convicted codefendants also face possible sentencing next week, including Jamie Paulin Ramirez, a Colorado mother who uprooted her young son and moved to Ireland to join LaRose’s cause, and Mohammad Hassan Khalid, an 19-year-old Maryland teen who in 2012 became the youngest person ever convicted on a U.S. terrorism charges.
Prosecutors are seeking sentences of less than 10 years for both. Their lawyers have indicated they intend to cite the troubled psychological histories of their clients as mitigating factors.
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