An Indianapolis woman they call "Jihad Kathie" because of her online posts has been noted by U.S. intelligence officials for years, a terrorism expert said. Peter Beering of the Indianapolis Terrorism Response Group said authorities have been aware of Kathie Smith, 46, for three years.Smith, an American convert, married a suspected German jihadist, and has been flying back and forth to Germany to visit him.
"She has a well-known blog that has had a series of postings on it, most recently the very pro-radical Islamist and jihadist video that was actually posted on YouTube," Beering said.
The clip shows Smith and her husband, known online as Salahudin Ibn Jafar, 28, preening and posing with weapons along with assorted jihadist propaganda.
Smith, who uses the name Zubaida, admits to whining about American policies towards Afghanistan, but said that she and her husband pose no threat.
"Just to hear that makes me laugh because the people that know me, they know that this has just been outlandish," Smith told 6News.
She concedes her husband has been close friends since childhood with terrorists. Still, she defends her behavior, including the pictures of posing with weapons.
"Sarah Palin has pictures of her holding guns. What's the big deal?" said Smith.
Smith has commended the deaths of U.S. soldiers -- terrorists, she called them -- at the hands of the Taliban in Afghanistan, praised someone else's posting of the WTC on 9/11, and has repeatedly called for jihad against the West.
The Indiana Department of Homeland Security has been made aware of the video of Smith and her husband. Officials turned it over to state police and the Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center.
Still, Beering said he doesn't see the Indianapolis woman as a large threat.
| Gee, how comforting. |
| Early in the article this Beering guy is called 'a terrorism expert'. Now we see that expertise includes the notion that being a mass murder groupie is simply a harmless 'different' point of view, probably less dangerous than a patch of ice. Holy crap! |