US teen pleads guilty to terrorism charges in case involving plot vs. Swedish artist

PHILADELPHIA – A Pakistan-born teen pleaded guilty Friday to terrorism charges for helping a U.S. woman who called herself “Jihad Jane” support an Irish terror cell planning to wage a Muslim holy war in Europe.

Mohammad Hassan Khalid had won a full scholarship to prestigious Johns Hopkins University before the FBI arrested him last year at age 17, making him a rare juvenile held in federal custody.

Khalid, now 18, faces up to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to a single count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. In a secret life online, the high school honours student had agreed to raise money and recruit terrorists for jihad.

Khalid’s parents and three siblings had become naturalized U.S. citizens, while he had not. He therefore faces likely deportation when he leaves prison, U.S. District Judge Petrese B. Tucker warned him.

“It’s absolutely tragic,” defence lawyer Jeffrey M. Lindy said after the plea. “Was he feeling lonely after coming from Pakistan? Absolutely. But he was not a loner. He wasn’t the big man on campus, or captain of the football team. But he wasn’t a black trenchcoat-wearing loner.”

Khalid met Colleen LaRose in a chat room when he was 15. LaRose, who called herself “Jihad Jane,” had secretly converted to Islam and was appearing in jihadist YouTube videos. She faces life in prison after admitting last year that she had plotted to kill a Swedish artist whose cartoon had offended Muslims.

LaRose was being watched by the FBI after posting online videos in which she vowed to kill or die for the jihadist cause.

In court Friday, prosecutors said Khalid once received a package from LaRose, removed a passport from it and forwarded other items to co-conspirators. He wanted to deliver the passport to them himself, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams said.

“Khalid also sought confirmation from LaRose that her ‘brothers’ are REAL muhahids,” or jihadists, Williams said. Khalid helped LaRose remove online jihadist posts after the FBI interviewed her, she said.

The government recovered extensive electronic communications between the parties, she said.

Messages sent on July 19, 2009, detail co-defendant Ali Charaf Damache telling Khalid their group would be a “professional organized team” training with either al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb or the Islamic State of Iraq.

Damache instructed Khalid to recruit men and women with passports who could travel through Europe. Khalid then sent out at least one questionnaire that he forwarded to LaRose.

Damache remains in Irish custody on an unrelated phone threat charge, U.S. authorities said.

Khalid’s sentencing is on hold indefinitely, perhaps because Damache awaits extradition to the U.S.

LaRose was arrested in November 2009 after returning to the United States from Ireland, where authorities said she travelled after agreeing to marry an online contact from South Asia and become a martyr. LaRose intended to murder Swedish artist Lars Vilks for depicting the prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog, authorities said.

Investigators said there’s no evidence LaRose ever made it to Sweden.

Damache, an Irish citizen from Algeria, married another American woman, Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, after she moved to Ireland to meet him. Paulin-Ramirez has also pleaded guilty to providing material aid to terrorists.

The American women were sought for their Western looks and passports, authorities have said.

Neither she nor LaRose has been sentenced.