A Colorado woman who converted to Islam last year and was lured to Europe by online extremists is among seven people arrested in Ireland in connection with a suspected plot to murder a Swedish cartoonist, her parents said on Saturday.
The arrest of Jamie Paulin Ramirez, a 31-year-old mother, confirmed by a US law enforcement source who spoke on condition of anonymity, marks the second US woman linked to such a conspiracy in recent days.
The US Justice Department said on Tuesday it has charged Colleen LaRose, a suburban Philadelphia woman who used the online pseudonyms “Fatima LaRose” and “JihadJane,” with plotting to kill an unnamed Swedish man and using the Internet to enlist co-conspirators.
Separately, Irish police said on Tuesday they had detained seven individuals suspected of planning to assassinate cartoonist Lars Vilks of Sweden in retaliation for a drawing that depicted the Prophet Mohammad with the body of a dog.
That cartoon is said to have prompted an Iraqi group linked with al-Qaeda to place a US$100,000 bounty on Vilk’s life. Three of those arrested — two men and a woman — were released late on Friday, police said.
Another woman was released without charge on Saturday, Irish police said, leaving three men in custody.
Police said files on all four suspects freed so far will be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), meaning charges could still be brought.
Those originally arrested were three Algerians, a Libyan, a Palestinian, a Croatian and a US national, a police source said on Thursday.
US officials have declined to comment on whether the indictment of “JihadJane,” who has been in US custody since last October, was connected with the alleged Vilks plot.
But Ramirez’s mother and stepfather, Christine and George Mott of Leadville, Colorado, said they believe their daughter was recruited by LaRose, who they say introduced Ramirez to an Algerian man she married after moving to Ireland in September.
“These terrorists came into my home through the Internet, uninvited, and have ripped my family apart,” Christine Mott said in a telephone interview from the family’s home in Leadville, a small town in the Rocky Mountains about 129km southwest of Denver.
The Motts said their daughter took her six-year-old son with her to Ireland, and that he had been placed in foster care since Ramirez’s arrest on Tuesday with six others, including her new Algerian husband. Her parents described the Algerian as “Jihad Jane’s main contact over there.”
The Motts said they learned on Thursday of their daughter’s incarceration with six other foreign nationals through a US official but declined to be more specific.
Neither Irish police, nor the FBI or Justice Department would comment on whether Ramirez was one of those held.
The Motts said Ramirez had been living with her son in their home, and working at a nearby medical center while studying to be a nurse practitioner, when she stunned relatives last Easter by announcing her conversion to Islam.
Christine Mott said her daughter began spending an increasing amount of time on the Internet, conversing online with individuals who seemed to be extremists. She also began covering herself with a traditional head scarf, or hijab, worn by devout Muslim women, her mother said.
In September, Ramirez vanished, prompting the family to file a missing-persons report with local police. George Mott, himself a convert to Islam, said he talked to FBI agents and handed over Ramirez’s computer to them as evidence of the parents’ concerns that she had fallen in with extremists.
In October, Ramirez called her parents from Ireland to report that she and her son were safe and living there.
Christine Mott said she has talked regularly with her grandson until this week, and was devastated when he told her in a recent conversation that “We hate Christians,” leading to a heated quarrel with her daughter over the phone.
She said her main concern now was to get her grandson back to the US.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in