Click here to find out more! 'JJihad Jane' indictment alleges threat from within U.S.

American Colleen R. LaRose, 46, is accused of using the Internet to recruit and assist Muslim terrorist operations in Europe and Asia.Reporting from Washington - Using e-mail, YouTube videos, phony travel documents and a burning desire to kill

"or die trying," a middle-aged American woman from Pennsylvania helped recruit a network for suicide attacks and other terrorist strikes in Europe and Asia, according to a federal grand jury indictment unsealed Tuesday.
Colleen R. LaRose, who dubbed herself "Jihad Jane," was so intent on waging jihad, authorities said, that she traveled to Sweden to kill an artist in a way that would frighten "the whole Kufar [nonbeliever] world."
With blond hair and green eyes, the 46-year-old woman bragged that she could go anywhere undetected, allegedly boasting in one e-mail that it was "an honour & great pleasure to die or kill for" jihad.
"Only death will stop me here that I am so close to the target!" she boasted.
She did not kill the artist, however.
Authorities said LaRose solicited funds for terrorist organizations, helped arrange phony passports and other travel records, and used the Internet to recruit women to kill in Europe and men in Asia. LaRose was arrested Oct. 15 in Philadelphia, and the indictment against her was unsealed Tuesday.
Federal officials held her up as an example of how terrorists sometimes boldly operate inside the United States, fearless of the world watching them on the Internet.
"A woman from suburban America agreed to carry out murder overseas and to provide material support to terrorists," said David Kris, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's National Security Division. That, he emphasized, "underscores the evolving nature of the threat we face."
Michael L. Levy, the U.S. attorney in Philadelphia, said the case shows "the use terrorists can and do make" of communicating through e-mails and videos around the world." He called LaRose "yet another very real danger lurking on the Internet."
The other danger, authorities said, is that radical jihadists are increasingly turning to homegrown U.S. citizens to carry out their plots. "Terrorists are looking for Americans to join them in their cause," Levy said, adding that LaRose "shatters any lingering thought that we can spot a terrorist based on appearance."
But her alleged motivation was not completely clear Tuesday night.
"She appeared to be one of those people who spend a lot of time online and go to all these radical websites and chat rooms," one source said.
"If there was some moment in her life that changed her, I don't know," another said.
Officials said she began to respond to Internet requests from conspirators abroad and to take a leading role in ongoing plots. They said she stole one person's U.S. passport and "transferred or attempted to transfer it in an effort to facilitate an act of international terrorism."
The indictment, which also mentioned but did not identify five unindicted co-conspirators, said that LaRose first came to the attention of the FBI in June 2008 when she posted a comment on YouTube under the user name "Jihad Jane." She stated that she was "desperate to do something somehow to help" the suffering Muslim people.