10 March 2010

Jihad Jane

(Colleen R. LaRose. New York Times version of a WPVI-TV image, via Agence France-Presse. Copyright Getty Images)

No, gentle readers, this is not going to be a rant about the ex’s in one’s life. I have mellowed with time on that score as the wreckage diminishes in the rear-view. This is about an entirely different woman who took the name and apparently assumed the on-line persona of a holy warrior. As such, she supported a sinister murder plot originating in Ireland to kill Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks who dared to place the likeness of The Prophet on the body of a dog.
 
You can imagine that the Faithful were outraged, and a fund was established to pay $100,000 in exchange for the artist's death.
 
I am fiercely committed to the First Amendment, even though I have a desire for comity in discourse, Accordingly, I think deliberate insult to the cherished beliefs of others is in questionable taste, even though I believe in the individual right to do so.
 
After all, the Supreme Court holds that even the Constitution does not necessarily protect the right to utter “fighting words,” or shout “Fire!” in a crowded theater. More recent legislation has identified the concept of “hate speech.” I don’t know about that, since the agenda behind the latter was based in the Civil Rights struggle. There is a lot more hate speech going around that is way outside that construct.
 
There is a new and unsettling face to the struggle with fevered religious fanatics. The image above purports to be the face of Jihad in Pennsylvania. She is sort of my type- fair, blonde, green-eyed- and also has a history of inciting violent revolution on her social network site.
 
The woman’s name is Colleen LaRose, and she is old enough to know better. Apparently she veered from polemic to pro-action last year, being recruited for her somewhat hard-edged but unmistakable American look and passport to support an assassination.
 
The Feds busted her last October, according to the papers, but the matter was kept under seal until a parallel investigation into a terror cell was completed in Ireland.
 
I don’t know if Ms LaRose is a fervent convert, a nut-case or an opponent of American imperialism, nor do I care. If she was aiding and abetting a political murder, she should of course be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I’m pleased someone is looking at what people say on MySpace and FaceBook, I think, though it is unsettling that the caricature of the terrorist should be so dramatically counter-profiled.
 
The face of the enemy is not supposed to look sort of hot.

Anyway, the problem is getting larger, and it has been one of Mr. bin-Laden’s goals to diversify his base with Europeans and Americans.
 
I was ready this week to jump on the story of the arrest of renegade al-Qaida media spokesman Adam Gadahn. I was really hoping we could have a nice trial for the young man, and then lock him up someplace for a very long time. Or hang him. He has been indicted for treason, after all.
 
The White House says they can’t confirm they really got him in Karachi, and could be another jerk with the phrase “adam” in his nom de guerre.


(American al Qaida militant idiot Adam Gadahn. REUTERS photo)

Adam is the offspring of some back-to-the-land hippies in California, and he can like, you know, communicate.
 
At least he has had the courtesy to go all the way. I don’t know if Colleen has taken the veil or not. Makes you wonder, though. I think it is probably back to basics for me, and will just assume that everyone is out to get us.
 
Copyright 2010 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
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