UPDATE below
Colleen LaRose (aka Jihad Jane) pleaded guilty on Tuesday in a Pennsylvania court. Among the charges LaRose pleaded guilty to are conspiracy to murder a foreign target and conspiracy to support terrorists.
The word conspiracy interests me greatly because conspiracy implies more than one person and every single person she allegedly conspired with was (is?) living in Ireland at the time. LaRose apparently conspired to kill Swedish cartoonist Lars Viks, who offended Muslims with his portrayal of the Prophet Mohammed as a dog.
International conspiracy. Jihad. Murder. Guilty. Ireland.
You'd imagine that the Irish media would be all over this one, right? Well, you would be wrong.
The national television and radio service, RTE, has avoided the topic completely, as far as I can tell. I haven't heard it mentioned nor seen it on their web site. The two main newspapers, Irish Independent and Irish Times, have published brief wire service articles about LaRose changing her plea, but with no details on the story's connection to Ireland.
It's almost like there's a conspiracy in the Irish media, a conspiracy of silence on this international terrorist conspiracy based in Ireland.
The story broke in March of last year when seven people were arrested in Counties Waterford and Cork, although five were almost immediately released. Among those five was American Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, who was arrested upon her return to America.
You'd imagine the media might be just a tad interested in this angle. Two American women arrived in this country just as any other tourists from America do, only these two were (allegedly in Paulin-Ramirez's case) intent on meeting up with one or more other people based here with the intent of carrying out a terrorist attack.
LaRose faces life in prison for the crimes for which she's been convicted; Paulin-Ramirez could spend 15 years in prison if she's convicted.
These are serious crimes. Yet the Irish media hasn't mentioned it other than those few sentences that add nothing to what you'd have might have heard on a news bulletin from CNN.
No mention of Paulin-Ramirez's husband, Ali Charaf Damache, alleged contact for LaRose before she left America and who, as far as I can tell, last made the news here back in May when he was "sent forward for trial" in Waterford District Court.
No mention of Waterford or Cork for that matter, despite the fact the original arrests were made there. Also, no further mention of Imam Ali Al-Saleh and his view expressed last spring that Ireland is a hotbed of Islamic extremism.
No mention at all. It's as of it is all just one of those things that happened somewhere else. Only it didn't. It happened here and they came here for a reason, but nobody seems all that interested in understanding why.
UPDATE: Ask and you shall receive, right? Today's Sunday Independent provided the Irish angle I was looking for on Colleen LaRose's guilty plea during the week.
16 Comments
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.CitizenWhy | Feb 08, 2011, 07:56 AM EST
How can Ireland miss this one? You could set up one or two sites where the conspirators met, and turn them into "must see" tourist spots. It would be easy to plant stories in the media about these "unusual tourist attractions." This tourist attraction would appeal to Irish people, Europeans fearful of Muslim plots, Muslims, Americans fearful of Muslim plots, mental therapists, etc.
seanomelbourne | Feb 07, 2011, 06:43 PM EST
What a christian person ourselves alone is.He's a purveyor of hate and bigotry.
seagreen | Feb 07, 2011, 08:17 AM EST
Ah yes, the USS Liberty, Had anyone other than Israel have done that, they would have been erased! I remember the excuses and attempted cover up. The US government made excuses for Israel after over thirty Americans were slaughtered by Israeli fighter planes provided by the US govt. Just go to the website......
OurselvesAlone | Feb 06, 2011, 09:44 PM EST
@GeorgeDillon Gee, I think you have been had. Here's hoping that that first TIT (i.e., towelhead in [a] tunic) self detonates next to you at a lunch counter or in an elevator. Gee, I think I have been had.
seanomelbourne | Feb 06, 2011, 12:11 AM EST
remitromjr like Mman> "damnant qoudnon intelligant".
GeorgeDillon | Feb 05, 2011, 05:20 PM EST
Yank, I'll continue to call you a bigot, because you're an apologist for mass killings, cruelty and oppression as carried out by Israeli murder gangs. You're worse than a bigot, you're a racist.
REMITROMJR | Feb 05, 2011, 11:09 AM EST
Yank, As a fellow American, it's abundantly clear that the Irish media, like the rest of the European media, has an overwhelmingly pro-Arab stance. The stereotype of an American is that he believes that all Muslims are terrorists and a threat to world-wide stability. But the REALITY of Irish, an European, opinion is that all Muslims are poor, oppressed people and thus any action they take is justified. And, as you seen by the comments made, anyone who speaks the truth about their criminal behavior is branded a "racist". A response, I might add, that mirrors what anyone speaking of criminal behavior by African-Americans in the United States receives. They can live in their fantasy world with their Arab brethren...that is until those brethren turn on them as "infidels" to be vanquished.
Monsoonman | Feb 04, 2011, 07:40 PM EST
Illegitimi non carborundum! Good on ya Yank, keep the truth coming!
londonirish1965 | Feb 04, 2011, 04:36 PM EST
Theres plenty of cover up in the American media when the kosher agenda demands it-Google USS LIBERTY-a US ship attacked by Israel and total mushroom job by the kosher US media.The captain and many men were Irish American-lets see Irish Central`s investigative journalists reveal the truth.
seanomelbourne | Feb 04, 2011, 04:18 PM EST
"The Yank" maybe the press did not think it newsworthy enough.WE don't suffer from your Islamic phobias "precious".
ShamrockShore | Feb 04, 2011, 02:00 PM EST
The Yank should consider his/her last two paragraphs. But he/she still wouldn't get it. The law in Ireland doesn't do ambiguity.
TheYank | Feb 04, 2011, 12:52 PM EST
GeorgeDillon,
That's twice in a week you've called me a bigot. I'll keep it parliamentary.
Where do you think I learned of the story, but through the American media. The first place I saw it was on CNN this day last week. That was when LaRose's lawyer contacted CNN to tell them she'd changed her plea.
On Tuesday when she entered her plea in court the story was everywhere in the American media. It was in the British press on Wednesday. It was also a pretty big story in Sweden. But here? Nothing.
Now since I wrote this someone here has mentioned that there is a court case pending next week and it may be that the press here is prevented from discussing the matter by law. If that's true, then fine. I don't know if that's true, but it doesn't sound unreasonable.
Still, at a minimum, I would have thought the Irish media could have talked about LaRose without mentioning any names of possible co-conspirators based here.
GeorgeDillon | Feb 04, 2011, 12:40 PM EST
This woman is American, not Irish. How come this bigot "Yank" is not attacking the American media?
zzzyob111 | Feb 04, 2011, 11:09 AM EST
It is no surprise to me that the media is pro terrorist
ShamrockShore | Feb 04, 2011, 09:28 AM EST
Don't know about the McSpartacus letter. Seems like it was written by a Daily Mail reader/writer. The fact is that we don't fit people up in this country. We don't overreact. And we carefully dissect soundbites before acting on. And why he/she goes on about corporate yes men ........ Fox, Sky, The WSJ and other right wing journals lead the way here. Perhaps only the National Inquirer and Globe can be trusted with the truth.
McSpartacus | Feb 04, 2011, 06:11 AM EST
Yank, the Irish media, like many/most medias, are a collection of corporate yes-men and political lapdogs; this is off the edge of their intellects' flat-earth. If they can't tar e.g. Sinn Féin or one of their political opponents with it, they're clueless as to what to do with it. Where's Kevin "Wing Commander" Myers or Eoin "Ahmed Chalabi" Harris? They haven't received any orders, so it may as well not exist.