Jihad Jane II: second US woman arrested over cartoonist murder plot

Ireland
Sunday, 14thth March 2010

An American woman who converted to Islam last year and was lured to Europe by online extremists was arrested in Ireland in connection with a suspected plot to murder a Swedish cartoonist, her mother said on Saturday.

Jamie Paulin-Ramirez is the second American woman arrested in a plot to kill the Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks

Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, the second American woman to be linked to the plot, had vowed to "strap a bomb" for the jihad cause, said Christine Mott.

Miss Paulin-Ramirez was a troubled single mother who taught her six-year-old son to hate Christians, said Mrs Mott. The 31-year-old had the "mentality of an abused woman" and had fallen in with extremists to escape her loneliness, according to her mother.

"She doesn't have the sense God gave a goose. She's book-smart and common-sense-dumb," said Mrs Mott.

Miss Paulin-Ramirez, a former trainee nurse from Leadville, Colorado, was one of seven people arrested in Ireland last week over an alleged conspiracy to murder Lars Vilks, a Swedish cartoonist who had depicted the prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog.

In a development that has caused alarm in the United States, she was the second American woman to be linked with the plot.

Colleen LaRose, who allegedly called herself Jihad Jane on the internet, was charged in the US last week over the plot to kill Mr Vilks.

Irish police have now released four of those arrested without charge and her parents confirmed Miss Paulin-Ramirez was one of them.

According to friends and family, both women had converted to Islam and became obsessed with radical Muslim internet sites, later agreeing to marry foreign men they had met online.

Her mother said the thrice-married Miss Paulin-Ramirez had even communicated online with a Pakistani who said he wanted to come to the US to learn to fly.

Mrs Mott said her daughter told her last Easter she had become a Muslim.

She began talking about jihad with George Mott, her stepfather and a longtime Muslim convert, telling him she would die for the cause, but became increasingly hostile to her family, said her mother.

"We were enemies. We couldn't even speak to each other," said Mrs Mott.

"I'd yell at her, 'Get off the damn computer, do something with your son.'" During a recent phone call, the boy told her that "all Christians will burn in hellfire", said Mrs Mott.

After she left in September, Miss Paulin-Ramirez told her family she had moved to Ireland and married an Algerian she had met online.

Mrs Mott said her daughter, who was "the kid in the class everyone picked on and made fun of", had "got sucked in" and was simply looking for someone who would love her.

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Downing Street accused of 'dirty tricks' over plan to get presenter into safe seat

London
Sunday, 14th March 2010

Downing Street has been accused of using dirty tricks to get a glamorous former GMTV journalist into a Labour safe seat.

Gloria De Piero, 37, resigned as political editor of the breakfast show last month to begin her campaign to replace Geoff Hoon as the MP for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire.

Gloria De Piero, GMTV's former Political Correspondent

Local party officials have accused Downing Street of doing everything possible to get Miss De Piero into the Commons, including omitting the leader of a think tank from the shortlist of potential candidates.

Gordon Brown has given up alcohol but is still biting his nails

Kate becomes forbidden fruit Labour issued the shortlist of three women for the seat, which comes with a majority of 10,000, last week. On it were Miss de Piero, Faye Abbott, a party activist, and Pam Tatlow, who runs Million+, a higher education think tank.

However, Miss Tatlow was replaced by an unknown health visitor named Joyce Still.

Miss Tatlow refused to comment on what had happened, but her supporters claim her name had been switched in a panic because she posed a real threat to Miss De Piero.

The former presenter, who worked at GMTV for seven years, was said to be close to Tony Blair and has and has been a guest of Gordon Brown at Chequers.

One source told the Daily Mail: "What has this Gloria woman ever done? Sat on a breakfast sofa for a few years and got in with the right people?"

Miss Tatlow, who develops funding policies for universities, has been chairman, secretary and vice-chairman of a constituency Labour party.

A leading member of the Ashford Labour Party told the Daily Mail: "The National Executive Committee is trying to hand it to De Piero on a plate.

"But they are making a serious mistake if they think they can take us for granted."

However, a Labour spokesman said it was a genuine error that Miss Tatlow had been dropped from the list.

"A clerical error occurred when the initial shortlist was circulated. This mistake was spotted and rectified immediately. There is a very strong shortlist of prospective candidates in Ashfield, from which local Labour Party members will select their candidate to fight the Tories at the General Election," he said.

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All-England Badminton Championship - CONGRATULATIONS Datuk Lee Chong Wei

England

Sunday, 14th March 2010

Badminton All England 2010: Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei lands first British title in style.

Malaysia’s world No 1 Lee Chong Wei finally won his first All England title on Sunday when he beat Kenichi Tago, the unseeded and exciting Japanese player, in an enthralling, high-tempo men’s singles final in Birmingham.

Chong Wei, who had trained for the Badminton Championships anticipating a final with Chinese rival Lin Dan, thus became the first non-Chinese men's singles winner since 2003 and only the second Malaysian champion in 44 years with his 21-19, 21-19 win.

Critics in Malaysia had questioned whether Chong Wei had the tenacity to lift a major title, having previously only won bronze at the World Championships. Not referring to the critics but to the winners of the five disciplines in Birmingham, Chong Wei had said after his first round win: “Their names will be remembered for a long time if they win this year.” The Malaysian now has the opportunity to unleash further titles after winning this elusive one.

All England Open highlights He lost out in last year's final to Dan, the world and Olympic champion, but the Chinese exited in the quarter-finals to ease the way for Chong Wei. And despite some nervy moments in the second game, the Datuk, Malaysia’s highest honour, put those answers to bed when he finally clinched the elusive one. But he had to fight hard against Tago who had earlier beaten top Chinese talent Chen Jin and Bao Chunlai to become the first Japanese to reach the men's singles final since Masao Akiyama finished runner-up in 1966.

Tago led 4-0 in the first set and 15-11 before Chong Wei finally nosed ahead at 16-15. Though Tago managed to save three set points he finally yielded at 21-19. In the second, Chong Wei led 6-1 and 11-7 but the tough Japanese levelled at 15-15.

Chong Wei thenconjured a stunning deceptive smash to a wrong-footed Tago from the back of the court. He backed it up with the real thing in the next rally with a huge winning smash.

The world No 1 found himself with three match points and although the young Japanese saved two, a third proved too much when a long drive to the baseline was called in – despite the shuttle visibly going beyond the baseline on the video replays.

Tago looked to protest but it would have taken a brave umpire to deny Chong Wei victory when he was already lying on his back in joy.

Telegraph.co.uk

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