Family of woman held in a terrorism inquiry speaks out (new info-Jihad Jamie, Leadville muzzie)

A Leadville mother, detained in connection with a terrorist conspiracy to kill a Swedish cartoonist, was lonely in a new town and craved attention and new friendships, family members say.

Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, 31 — questioned in Ireland for several days before reportedly being released Saturday — found new friends online as she began corresponding with a group of Muslims including, her family says, Colleen R. LaRose, 46, known as "Jihad Jane," and admitted terrorist conspirator and former DIA shuttle-bus driver Najibullah Zazi.

"She couldn't do anything that would make people take notice," said her stepfather, George Mott, 51, himself a Muslim for more than 40 years. "Then she became a Muslim. Online Extras

Here was this blond, blue-eyed woman wearing a burqa. She knew everybody was going to want to know why."

Though she never understood her new religion in any depth, she risked her future in support of extremist causes, Mott said.

Paulin-Ramirez was detained last week in Waterford, Ireland, with five others as part of an investigation into a plot to kill Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks. The artist had incited Muslims with his parody cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

Irish police spokesman Tony Connaughton said Saturday that four people were released after talking with investigators while in custody.

The Associated Press reported that Paulin-Ramirez had been released, but Connaughton wouldn't confirm that. Connaughton also wouldn't say whether Paulin-Ramirez's son, 6-year-old Christian Carreon, was with authorities.

Irish law allows people to be held for seven days without charges and does not require their names to be made public. If the public prosecutor finds cause, those released can be rearrested. Connaughton acknowledged that was unlikely in this case, because once released, the non-Irish nationals would probably leave the country.

Paulin-Ramirez's mother, Christine Mott, and George Mott said their primary concern is for the welfare of Christian, who on Monday told his grandmother he has a sword and had recently learned how to fire a gun.

"She has put him in an environment that could get him killed," Christine Mott said Saturday while sobbing uncontrollably. "He was being taught to shoot guns."

Paulin-Ramirez was raised in a broken home and is bipolar, Christine said. She lost contact with her daughter for six years during her teen years.

In 2001, Paulin-Ramirez came to live with her mother in Denver after marriages to an abuser and an illegal immigrant. By then, the Motts had married and George Mott was in and out of jail, primarily on drug charges.

Paulin-Ramirez spent a lot of time cruising Federal Boulevard in Denver and identified with Mexican gangs, her mother said. Paulin-Ramirez colored her hair purple.

Christian's father, Paulin-Ramirez's third husband, was repeatedly deported to Mexico.

Paulin-Ramirez moved to San Diego and in 2003 was caught up with a group of "coyotes" who smuggled illegal immigrants into the United States, according to George Mott.

Paulin-Ramirez moved back to Colorado and enrolled in college. She got straight A's in school, her mother said.

She earned an associate's degree in spring 2007 but couldn't find a job in the Denver area.

Instead, she found one at Eagle Care Clinic in Edwards, an office that primarily serves the poor and uninsured. She worked there for more than two years, said Dr. Kent Petrie, the clinic's medical director, and was an "excellent and dedicated" employee.

Christine Mott, who is on disability, moved to the Leadville area shortly after her daughter did so she could help care for Christian.

Paulin-Ramirez worked as a medical assistant, setting up rooms and helping patients. Last fall, Petrie and some of the other office staff noticed she had started talking more about Islam and covering her head with a shawl.

"She wasn't trying to convert us or anything, but it was a rapid transition," Petrie said. "It was kind of a surprise to us. . . . She was never distracted, wearing the head coverings, the shawls."

The Motts also said Paulin- Ramirez's conversion to Islam was sudden. She had never been affiliated with a particular faith before. She started visiting Muslim websites and corresponding with Muslims on Internet chat rooms.

On Easter week last year, Paulin-Ramirez announced she was Muslim. She told her mother she would never wear a burqa, which covers most of the face and body. Then one day, the young woman began wearing a hijab, a scarf worn over the hair and neck. In the coming weeks, she would buy elaborate hijabs.

"She wouldn't buy food for her baby, but she bought the scarves," said Christine Mott as she took some of the head coverings out of a plastic bag and draped them on a coffee table.

She tried to convert her mother to Islam, Christine said. Paulin-Ramirez also began corresponding regularly with a Middle Eastern man named Ali.

Petrie, her boss, said he knew there was a man in Paulin-Ramirez's life, and that she was corresponding frequently with him on the Internet.

"I'm not sure if it was a romantic interest or someone who was more of a leader in her life," he said.

She was, the family discovered, corresponding with suspected terrorists including Jihad Jane and Zazi, the airport-shuttle driver who recently admitted his part in a plot to bomb the New York City subway system.

Christine Mott said her daughter refused to listen to reason about her questionable correspondents, even after one told her he wanted to come to the U.S. and get a pilot's license.

George Mott forbade Paulin-Ramirez to use his computer, worrying that the FBI would discover her interest and they would all be arrested.

She told her mother she was going to Denver on Sept. 11. She left her car at Denver International Airport and flew to New York City.

Petrie said the woman gave no notice. Staffers called the police to report that she hadn't shown up for work.

"We've all been very concerned about her," Petrie said. "We've been trying to get more information about her, and we never have been able to."

Christine Mott said her daughter left a bag of her scarves and $300 behind. She filed a missing person's report Sept. 15. Her daughter finally called a month later from Ireland.

Sgt. Saige Thomas of the Leadville police said it was apparent that something was wrong, but in the end, Paulin-Ramirez is an adult — and there was no evidence of foul play.

Christine Mott called the FBI agent who had investigated her daughter's involvement in an illegal-immigrant smuggling case. George Mott gave the computer Paulin-Ramirez had used to the FBI agent to analyze.

On Monday of last week, Paulin-Ramirez called from Ireland. But George Mott said mother and daughter haven't been able to speak for five minutes without getting into a screaming match since Paulin-Ramirez became a Muslim, and that Paulin-Ramirez almost immediately gave the phone to her son. That is when Christian said his name had been changed to Wahid.

The boy asked them to give a black-and-white kitten his old name, Christian. He said he was being taught how to shoot guns, the family said.

"He said all Christians will burn in hell and that Christians will be punished," Christine Mott said.

She said even if her daughter has been released, her grandson remains in grave danger. She hopes to gain custody of the child but lacks the money to hire an attorney.

"If she thinks she's out scot-free, is she going to go back to those people and put that baby in the same situation?" she said. "Even if they can't prove it, these people are terrorists and that baby is still in danger."

Definitely a bizarre family. Her current stepfather is also a Muslim convert, but he converted 40 years ago and has been in and out of jail since then on drug charges, so I suspect he may be a Black Muslim. Some of them become fanatics, but others don’t take it very seriously.

This stepfather and her mother have only been married for about a year, since the death of the woman’s husband who was, presumably, jihad jamie’s father. So it doesn’t sound like the stepfather is just playing innocent - he really wouldn’t have had much influence on her. But she was clearly a flake just looking for some lunacy to attach herself to and follow into oblivion.

Once upon a time women like this would have gone off and joined Jim Jones or one of those cults where you sit around waiting for the spaceship to pick you up, but now they join a cult that tells them to go out and kill non-members. That’s the “special difference” of Islam. It’s murderous.

I figured from the shorter story posted earlier that this was a dysfunctional family. Now I see that it really, really was dysfunctional.

And this girl got straight A’s in school. Nothing wrong with her intelligence. She’s just another willing victim of the craziness running rampant in our country since the cultural revolution. Mexican illegals, drug gangs, immigrant smugglers, drinks, drugs & sex, and then the final straw: Islam.

Ugh.

pretty good analysis; i would add to the list of causes the moral and spiritual decay that has taken place in the US. It is one thing to be open culturally to accepting people of other faiths; the trouble is the synchristic new age theology which pervades Western Christianity.

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