| Jamie Paulin Ramirez | |
|---|---|
| Arrested | 2009 Ireland Irish officials |
| Detained at | Federal Correctional Institution, Waseca |
| Penalty | 8 years |
| Spouse | Ali Charaf Damache |
Jamie Paulin Ramirez is an American convert to Islam who confessed to a role in a plot to murderLars Vilks, a Swedish artist some Muslims accused of blasphemy for having drawn the Islamic prophetMuhammad.[1][2][3][4]
In 2009, Ramirez traveled toIreland, at the same time asColleen LaRose, where she marriedAli Charaf Damache, who stands accused of recruiting other individuals to a terrorist cell, that plotted to murder Vilks.[1][2][3] Commentators noted that both Ramirez and LaRose were blonde, with blue eyes, and that Damache and his colleagues sought out blonde-haired, blue-eyed converts because, once radicalized, they would find it easy to cross borders without suspicion.[5]
Upon her arrival, she married Damache.[1][2][3]
Damache's assassination plans centered around LaRose.[1][2][3] However LaRose is reported to have found Damache much less impressive in person, and to have tried to tip off the FBI herself, thinking they would pay to return her to the USA. LaRose did return to the United States, and openly acknowledged her role in the plot, implicating Damache and Ramirez. LaRose received a ten-year sentence, and Ramirez an eight-year sentence.[6][7][8]
Ramirez knew the man only by his real name, Ali Damache, and in his latest message to her, he persisted: Bring your son. Marry me. I will teach you Arabic and the mystical beauty of the Koran.
Prosecutors, who had sought at least a 20-year sentence for LaRose, asked for at least a 10-year sentence for Ramirez, alleging that she allowed the alleged Irish ringleader, Ali Charaf Damache, to train her young son for violence. They cited a video she recorded of the boy in Ireland wearing a robe and a scarf, and carrying toy gun. On the video, prosecutors said, she commands her son to "attack the kuffar," or non-believers, and he fires the toy gun.
In September 2009, in Waterford, Black Flag (Ali Damache, an Algerian who grew up in France, and had extensive experience in selling perfume and cosmetics at the women's section of a Paris department store) finally met his two prize recruits: LaRose (Jihadi Jane) and Ramirez (Jihad Jamie). LaRose arrived a few days ahead of Ramirez and Ramirez's son; on the day she arrived, Ramirez married Damache.
Ali Charaf Damache, who holds Irish citizenship, was accused of recruiting American women Colleen LaRose and Jamie Paulin-Ramirez via jihadist websites by the US Justice Department.