Colleen LaRose, known by the self-created pseudonym of ''Jihad Jane'', is pictured in this photo released by Site Intelligence Group on March 10, 2010. PHOTO: REUTERS
PHILADELPHIA: A US judge on Thursday is set to decide the prison sentence for Mohammad Hassan Khalid, a Pakistani immigrant high school student who pleaded guilty to providing assistance to al Qaeda. Khalid, now 20, is the youngest person ever charged with terrorism-related crimes in the United States.
He was arrested in 2011 on charges including providing material support for terrorists for working with a US woman who went by the nickname "Jihad Jane" and had plotted to kill a Swedish artist.
The woman, a suburban Philadelphia housewife whose real name is Colleen LaRose, in January was sentenced to 10 years in prison for planning to murder artist Lars Vilks, who had misrepresented Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
Khalid, who pleaded guilty to committing related crimes when he was as young as 15 and living in his parents' apartment in suburban Maryland, could have faced up to 15 years in prison but prosecutors have asked for a shorter sentence because he cooperated after his arrest. He is due in US District Court in Philadelphia on Thursday.
Khalid's attorney Jeffrey Lindy has said his client was easily lured into committing crimes by LaRose, a much older woman. The link between LaRose and Khalid, and his double life as honour student and online fighter, were chronicled in a 2011 Reuters investigative series.
LaRose admitted to following orders in 2009 from alleged al Qaeda operatives. She traveled to Ireland that fall to meet an Algerian, Ali Damache, whom she believed would train her. The plot did not materialise and Damache is fighting extradition from Ireland to the United States on terror charges.
In court filings, prosecutors said Khalid helped Damache recruit others and helped LaRose destroy evidence. Officials said Khalid "worked tirelessly" with two other American men now serving long prison terms on terror charges in other failed plots, Emerson Begolly and Reed Stanley Berry.
Prosecutors say he helped them translate violent videos from Urdu to English. Prosecutors also cited online postings in which Khalid tried to raise money for terrorists, but there is no public evidence that anyone ever sent him any money.
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@unbelievable: So we have a 17 year old kid who the efficient US police brought to book. I wonder if those same police will bring to book the US war criminals who routinely torture and illegally kill people around the world? If you have any doubts about brutal US torture techniques just read the US Senate Intelligence Committee report. Of course they are too embarrassed to release the full report. I also wonder if ET will print this?
It wont even take a second for a true Muslim to realize that this isn't Islam, it's what people think it's Islam.
All these immigrants, who are so much more luckier than rest of the people back in Pakistan that are facing so many hardships due to corruption but these people decide only to go to the dark side of humanity. With all the resources provided to be successful in life some people still swing an axe to their head, its amazing how narrow minded people can be. Good riddance.
"Khalid, who pleaded guilty to committing related crimes when he was as young as 15 ..........."
"Khalid’s attorney Jeffrey Lindy has said his client was easily lured into committing crimes by LaRose, a much older woman."
Now, put these in perspective and judge the events that occur every day in Pakistan such as, child marriages, conversion of hindu and christian girls as young as 5 - 12 years of age, who after being kidnaped from their homes are taken to muslim family homes where they are repeatedly raped and forcefully converted. Pakistani muslims should judge the society they have created for themselves and their families, the values they have instilled in themselves and their children, and the way they practice their religion.
Kudos to the American's for putting at least 4 bad guys in jail .. saved a number of lives. Pakistan should consider sending some of it's police to the USA to find out what techniques they use to discover these plots - and how they gather sufficient evidence to arrest and successfully prosecute these bad guys.