'Jihad Jane' accused pleads guilty to Irish charge

In this June 26, 1997 photo released by the Tom Green County Jail in San Angelo, Texas, is shown a 1997 booking mug of Colleen R. LaRose. LaRose, the self-described "Jihad Jane." (AP Photo/Tom Green County Jail)

In this June 26, 1997 photo released by the Tom Green County Jail in San Angelo, Texas, is shown a 1997 booking mug of Colleen R. LaRose. LaRose, the self-described "Jihad Jane." (AP Photo/Tom Green County Jail)

Published Feb 27, 2013

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Dublin - An Algerian at the center of the so-called Jihad Jane conspiracy pleaded guilty during an Irish proceeding on Wednesday that may hasten his extradition to the United States on terrorism charges, Irish television reported.

Ali Damache, who has lived in Ireland for a decade, pleaded guilty in court to a single count of sending a menacing message by telephone to an American Muslim activist, according to RTE television, reporting from the courthouse in Waterford, Ireland.

Damache, 47, has been held in Ireland for nearly three years, and was standing trial in Waterford this week, when the unexpected plea came. A more serious charge of threatening to kill the American activist was withdrawn.

The trial was unrelated to the Jihad Jane case, and U.S. authorities have been waiting for the Irish proceedings to finish so that they can extradite Damache to the United States.

The U.S. terrorism charges are far more serious. He is accused of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists - specifically, by luring two American-born women Muslim converts to Ireland in 2009.

Colleen LaRose, the Pennsylvania woman who called herself Jihad Jane, has pleaded guilty in U.S. court to conspiring with Damache to try to kill Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who had angered Muslims by depicting the Prophet Mohammed on the head of a dog.

The other American woman, Jamie Paulin Ramirez, married Damache the day she arrived in Ireland in September 2009, and has pleaded guilty in U.S. court to flying to Europe to help terrorists. A third defendant, Khalid Mohammed, a Maryland high school honor student arrested at age 18, also pleaded guilty.

LaRose, Ramirez and Mohammed are scheduled to be sentenced in May in federal court in Philadelphia.

U.S. Department of Justice spokeswoman Patty Hartman declined to comment on the Irish trial or extradition.

The week-long trial in Ireland was related to a different terrorism case - the 2009 Christmas Day attempt by a Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, to set off explosives hidden in his underwear as a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam neared Detroit. Abdulmutallab has pleaded guilty and is serving a life sentence.

Damache pleaded guilty to threatening Detroit Muslim-American activist Majed Moughni who organized a rally outside a courthouse where Abdulmutallab was appearing to condemn the bombing attempt.

The rally received wide media coverage, and the following morning Moughni said he received a threatening phone call at home from an unidentified man who was angry because Moughni had spoken out against the underwear bomber.

“I would put a bullet in your head because you are a hypocrite,” the caller said, according to a tape of the call Moughni recorded. - Reuters

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