"Jihad Jane"
May 21, 2013 7:42 PM Subscribe
Jane's Jihad: the new face of terrorism. A Reuters series in four parts.
Chapter 1: From abuse to a chat room, a martyr is made
Chapter 2: A vow is confirmed; a jihad grows
Chapter 3: The FBI visits; the jihad begins
Chapter 4: Confessions, jail and unwavering faith
Colleen LaRose pled guilty to plotting to murder Lars Vilks, and faces a life sentence.
The case was so serious, authorities said, that they charged the woman, Colleen LaRose, with crimes that could keep her in prison for the rest of her life. Now, as she awaits sentencing, a months-long Reuters review of confidential documents and interviews with sources in Europe and the United States -- including the first and only interview with Jihad Jane herself -- reveals a far less menacing and, in some ways, more preposterous undertaking than what the U.S. government asserted.
Chapter 1: From abuse to a chat room, a martyr is made
Chapter 2: A vow is confirmed; a jihad grows
Chapter 3: The FBI visits; the jihad begins
Chapter 4: Confessions, jail and unwavering faith
Colleen LaRose pled guilty to plotting to murder Lars Vilks, and faces a life sentence.
Yeah, warning, this story has no redemptive angle whatsoever.
The trope that is trotted out here - I had a hard life, but I will redeem myself by committing a pure act of religious violence - to me is both objectionable and disgusting. The lowest possible form of spiritual manifestation. I wish, for my own sake, that there was in-depth media coverage of Islam beyond the lunatics that follow it.
This, by the way, is what Jihad Jane sounds like. I guess I'll keep most of my thoughts to myself, but let's just say the jump from crystal meth and crack to shedding blood in the name of Allah didn't seem to go too smoothly for this person. Perhaps there is some profound insight to be made here about the roots of home-grown terrorism. Not so much inspired ideology as say, preying on the mentally unstable and vulnerable. But perhaps not.
posted by phaedon at 9:10 PM on May 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
The trope that is trotted out here - I had a hard life, but I will redeem myself by committing a pure act of religious violence - to me is both objectionable and disgusting. The lowest possible form of spiritual manifestation. I wish, for my own sake, that there was in-depth media coverage of Islam beyond the lunatics that follow it.
This, by the way, is what Jihad Jane sounds like. I guess I'll keep most of my thoughts to myself, but let's just say the jump from crystal meth and crack to shedding blood in the name of Allah didn't seem to go too smoothly for this person. Perhaps there is some profound insight to be made here about the roots of home-grown terrorism. Not so much inspired ideology as say, preying on the mentally unstable and vulnerable. But perhaps not.
posted by phaedon at 9:10 PM on May 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
Well, unlike almost every other "home-grown terrorism" plot, it seems that the crime was actually the idea of her and her collaborators, as opposed to the FBI.
posted by drjimmy11 at 10:14 PM on May 21, 2013 [7 favorites]
posted by drjimmy11 at 10:14 PM on May 21, 2013 [7 favorites]
To shield his identity, Khalid studied basic terrorist tradecraft - how to use programs such as Pidgin to encrypt chats and Tor to cloak his location.In any case, quite an interesting post, thank you.
posted by XMLicious at 10:54 PM on May 21, 2013
I think certain events from the last month show that not all plots are caused by entrapment, wouldn't you say?
posted by Apocryphon at 11:56 PM on May 21, 2013 [4 favorites]
posted by Apocryphon at 11:56 PM on May 21, 2013 [4 favorites]
This woman seems to be brain-damaged.
I suppose her circumstances led there. It's amazing how many would-be terrorists are losers.
It's also amazing how stupid she is. She's damned lucky she did not wind up trafficked someplace Hellish.
Her whole crew did not have the trade-craft of ten year-olds playing Top Secret with their grandmother.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 12:23 AM on May 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
I suppose her circumstances led there. It's amazing how many would-be terrorists are losers.
It's also amazing how stupid she is. She's damned lucky she did not wind up trafficked someplace Hellish.
Her whole crew did not have the trade-craft of ten year-olds playing Top Secret with their grandmother.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 12:23 AM on May 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
Perhaps there is some profound insight to be made here about the roots of home-grown terrorism. Not so much inspired ideology as say, preying on the mentally unstable and vulnerable.
It fits the narrative that "radical Islam" is the irrational enemy of the United States. Even native-born, blond females can fall within its evil grasp. As such nothing America does in pursuit can be too violent, too extreme, too unlawful, or too expensive.
drjimmy11's Rolling Stone link hits it:
But don't worry your pretty little heads over the epidemic of far-right insurrectionism that followed the election of Barack Obama: all told, according to a forthcoming data analysis by Neiwert, there have been 55 cases of right-wing extremists being arrested for plotting or committing alleged terrorists acts compared to 26 by Islamic militants during the same period. The right-wing plots include the bombing of a 2011 Martin Luther King Day parade in Spokane and the assassination of abortion doctor George Tiller in 2009. Neither of their perpetrators, it goes without saying, had been arrested before they attempted their vile acts; neither required law enforcement entrapment to conceive and carry them out. It's just too bad for their victims they did not fit the story federal law enforcement seeks to tell.
Home-grown isn't the issue, but it makes the real issue - "radical Islam" - just so much scarier.
posted by three blind mice at 1:47 AM on May 22, 2013 [4 favorites]
It fits the narrative that "radical Islam" is the irrational enemy of the United States. Even native-born, blond females can fall within its evil grasp. As such nothing America does in pursuit can be too violent, too extreme, too unlawful, or too expensive.
drjimmy11's Rolling Stone link hits it:
But don't worry your pretty little heads over the epidemic of far-right insurrectionism that followed the election of Barack Obama: all told, according to a forthcoming data analysis by Neiwert, there have been 55 cases of right-wing extremists being arrested for plotting or committing alleged terrorists acts compared to 26 by Islamic militants during the same period. The right-wing plots include the bombing of a 2011 Martin Luther King Day parade in Spokane and the assassination of abortion doctor George Tiller in 2009. Neither of their perpetrators, it goes without saying, had been arrested before they attempted their vile acts; neither required law enforcement entrapment to conceive and carry them out. It's just too bad for their victims they did not fit the story federal law enforcement seeks to tell.
Home-grown isn't the issue, but it makes the real issue - "radical Islam" - just so much scarier.
posted by three blind mice at 1:47 AM on May 22, 2013 [4 favorites]
It's amazing how many would-be terrorists are losers.
Chris Morris did reams of research on terrorism for his brilliant comedy Four Lions. Through his research, he found that the overwhelming majority of terrorists and would-be terrorists are violent, naive, incompetent simpletons. Of course, stupid people can be dangerous too, and frequently the stupid are more dangerous than the smart, but on the whole, there are far more stories about, say, terrorists sinking their own boat because they've overloaded it with weapons, than there are stories about successful terrorist attacks.
I am sorry that Colleen LaRose has had a hard life. On the one hand, that does not excuse what she did (and wanted to do). On the other hand, three years in solitary confinement is already an outsized punishment. Plotting murder is awful and must be punished, but if she had been plotting to kill her next door neighbor, would we give her three years in solitary? I don't think so.
Indeed, listen to the would-be victim himself:
Her intended victim, the Swedish artist Lars Vilks, says he believes LaRose has served enough time already.
"They should let her go," Vilks says. "Now that she is known, they can keep an eye on her.
But no, because this is 'Murica, we have to pretend that Colleen LaRose is on the level of Charles Manson, when it comes to sentencing.
posted by Sticherbeast at 4:54 AM on May 22, 2013
Chris Morris did reams of research on terrorism for his brilliant comedy Four Lions. Through his research, he found that the overwhelming majority of terrorists and would-be terrorists are violent, naive, incompetent simpletons. Of course, stupid people can be dangerous too, and frequently the stupid are more dangerous than the smart, but on the whole, there are far more stories about, say, terrorists sinking their own boat because they've overloaded it with weapons, than there are stories about successful terrorist attacks.
I am sorry that Colleen LaRose has had a hard life. On the one hand, that does not excuse what she did (and wanted to do). On the other hand, three years in solitary confinement is already an outsized punishment. Plotting murder is awful and must be punished, but if she had been plotting to kill her next door neighbor, would we give her three years in solitary? I don't think so.
Indeed, listen to the would-be victim himself:
Her intended victim, the Swedish artist Lars Vilks, says he believes LaRose has served enough time already.
"They should let her go," Vilks says. "Now that she is known, they can keep an eye on her.
But no, because this is 'Murica, we have to pretend that Colleen LaRose is on the level of Charles Manson, when it comes to sentencing.
posted by Sticherbeast at 4:54 AM on May 22, 2013
How Much Danger Do We Face From Homegrown Jihadist Terrorists?
posted by the man of twists and turns at 6:56 AM on May 23, 2013
posted by the man of twists and turns at 6:56 AM on May 23, 2013
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If this were a story, someone would eventually be nice to her.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 8:41 PM on May 21, 2013 [3 favorites]