For years, "JihadJane" had been a joke to those who kept tabs on her online.
She flirted with people who commented on the extremist videos she posted on YouTube.
When Web-monitoring groups learned her true identity, they laughed at photos of Colleen R. LaRose, the Muslim sympathizer from Montgomery County, quaffing beer in photos on her MySpace page.
But then she crossed a line.
According to the Web site JawaReport, a member of the online community monitoring LaRose became alarmed when she began soliciting funds through her Twitter account for terrorists.
That was enough for the person to contact the FBI in July, according to the administrator of JawaReport, who writes under the pseudonym "Rusty Shackleford" for personal security reasons.
"When [LaRose] started to solicit money, that was the last straw," he said in a telephone interview yesterday. "It bothered this person enough to contact the FBI about it."
Three months later, the FBI arrested LaRose, 46, of Pennsburg, in an alleged conspiracy to support terrorists and a plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist. She was taken into custody Oct. 16 as she stepped off a plane from Europe at Philadelphia International Airport.
Philadelphia FBI spokesman J.J. Klaver would not confirm whether a tip from the Web watcher led to the LaRose investigation.
But former U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan said last night: "I'm aware and know that there certainly was a role in this case served by such a group in alerting the federal authorities."
Meehan, who left office in 2008, said online tipsters are natural descendants of the "eyes and ears" community contacts who tipped off police to crime rackets, drug deals, and other impending crimes.
"With the amount of things that fly around online, it is impossible for law enforcement to be all things to all people," Meehan said. "This relationship is supportive and, in cases such as this, has proved to be vital in leading to an arrest."
A federal official involved in counterterrorism who did not want to be identified said the volume of Internet traffic "is insane," adding, "The question is, how do you know which posts are for real? You don't. You just have to hope you are right."
JawaReport is a blog that "Shackleford" said he founded to combat violent Islamist material and support on the Web. He has posted an account from LaRose's whistle-blower on his site - complete with photos of "JihadJane" in denim shorts, in Muslim garb, and on vacation in Amsterdam. He said the informant did not want to be identified or interviewed.
He and others had been watching LaRose for at least two years, usually with amusement. As she continued to post inflammatory video clips on YouTube, groups such as JawaReport and YouTube Smackdown reported her and got her account closed.
The JawaReport blogger said LaRose went through at least 27 accounts that YouTube pulled.
"It became quite common for us to make fun of her, and it became even more fun because she would respond to you," he said. "It became a bit of a cat-and-mouse game."
"JihadJane's" Web naiveties made her easy to identify as LaRose, he said, and to find her social-networking sites.
"It was kind of funny, because she was claiming to be a hard-core jihadist," he said. "Then we saw some old pictures of her drinking beer and stuff. Honestly, it looked like someone straight out of Cops."
Because of that, and because of LaRose's rather generic "I hate America" posts, many took her lightly.
"I had my eyes on other people who seemed to be bigger threats," he said. "She was low priority."
While he still didn't see LaRose as dangerous in July, the man said, he is glad his online acquaintance did.
"The takeaway from this, I think, is that you have to investigate all these people, but there isn't the manpower," said the blogger, who said he began writing on the Web after Chester County native Nicholas Berg was kidnapped and beheaded on video by Islamic extremists in 2004.
"They have to lower the bar as far as who they look at and who they discard," he said. "We're going to have to spend some resources on this."
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