By John Shiffman
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Colleen LaRose, the Philadelphia-area woman known as JihadJane, pleaded guilty Tuesday afternoon to participating in a terror plot to kill a Swedish artist.
LaRose, a 47-year-old who lived with her boyfriend and mother in Pennsburg, spoke only briefly in federal court in Philadelphia, mostly to simply affirm her guilt to the charges outlined by prosecutors.
With long, tangled blond hair and stylish fingernails, the soft-spoken, 4-foot-10 LaRose struck a meek and diminutive pose in court Tuesday, a vivid contrast to the strident and often virulent jihadist prose she posted online.
U.S. counterterrorism officials have said LaRose represents a new and alarming threat - an American-born woman who joined an Islamic terror conspiracy.
“Today’s plea, by a woman from suburban America who plotted with others to commit murder overseas and to provide material support to terrorists, underscores the evolving nature of the threat we face,” David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security, said in a statement.
During the 20-minute hearing, LaRose pleaded guilty to charges that she engaged in a conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, including providing a U.S. passport, and that she lied to FBI agents about it.
If she had gone to trial and lost, LaRose would have faced a likely life sentence, according to the advisory sentencing guidelines.
The guidelines now likely call for a term of 30 years to life, though U.S. District Judge Petrese B. Tucker could impose a shorter term.
The guilty plea entered Tuesday afternoon before Tucker did not include any language indicating that LaRose would cooperate against any of her alleged conspirators.
One, Jamie Paulin-Ramirez of Leadville, Colo., is charged with providing material aid to terrorists, and is scheduled to stand trial in May.
Paulin-Ramirez’s lawyer, Jeffrey Ibrahim, said the trial was now likely to be delayed because the case strategy will now change. Ibrahim said he was pleased that his client would no longer be “tarnished” by any association with LaRose during the trial.
Asked by a gaggle of reporters outside the courthouse if he expected LaRose to become a government witness against Paulin-Ramirez, the lawyer said: “That’s the question of the day.”
Prosecutors declined to comment afterward, as did LaRose’s lawyers, Mark T. Wilson and Rossman D. Thompson. “We’ll say more at the sentencing,” Wilson said.
Sources have told The Inquirer that LaRose initially confessed following her arrest in October 2009, but a congressman who was briefed by the FBI said last year that he believes her cooperation was short-lived.
By many accounts, LaRose has lived a gritty life - divorced twice, arrested or charged often for petty offenses, some alcohol-related.
In 2005, following the death of her father, she swallowed at least eight prescription muscle relaxers, nearly killing herself.
In response to routine questions, she told the judge yesterday that she was not taking any medication and had never been treated for mental illness.
Those who knew her well, including her boyfriend of six years, Kurt Gorman, have said they were shocked by her involvement. “Had anyone accused her of terrorism, I would have thought it was a joke,” he said last year.
But as outlined in court Tuesday by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams, LaRose’s affiliation and contact with Islamic extremists was no joke.
“LaRose worked obsessively on her computer to communicate with, recruit, and incite other jihadists,” Williams said. The prosecutor said LaRose used the monikers JihadJane and Fatima Rose, and bragged online that she could use her identity - her Western face, blond hair and U.S. passport - to help terrorists achieve their goals.
Williams said LaRose sent e-mails pledging to “become a martyr,” and by March 2009 was agreeing to help kill the Swedish artist Lars Vilk, whose 2007 drawing of a dog with the head of Muhammad offended some Muslims.
“I will make this my goal till I achieve or die trying,” she wrote a fellow conspirator, according to her indictment. Later, she wrote, “Only death will stop me here that I am so close to the target.”
LaRose’s travel to Europe in September 2009 included an alleged visit to Ireland to meet seven coconspirators, who have not been identified in U.S. court documents. She offered to use her U.S. identity and her boyfriend’s passport, and to marry a jihadist to help in the terror plot, Williams said.
LaRose’s arrest in Philadelphia in October 2009 was kept secret until March 2010, when Irish law enforcement swept up a ring of seven alleged terrorist plotters.
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