Expert: Montgomery woman's arrest on terror charge is troubling
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
By: Elizabeth Fiedler
efiedler@whyy.org
One security expert says the arrest of a Montgomery County woman on charges she plotted with Islamic radicals is a particularly troubling development.
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In photos and the impressions of her Pennsburg neighbors, Colleen LaRose is an unremarkable American woman.
Stephen Gale of the Foreign Policy Research Institute says that could make her more effective, and thus more menacing.
Gale: "One thing that looks particularly difficult to deal with in this case is that she wouldn't turn up on any of the normal profiling types of scans that one would do say at an airport. So I guess in that respect it looks to be relatively threatening."
According to a federal indictment, LaRose wrote to a co-conspirator that her appearance would allow her to blend in with many people and "achieve what is in my heart."
U.S. Attorney Michael Levy said in a statment that the case "…shatters any lingering thought that we can spot a terrorist based on appearance."