PHILADELPHIA (March 10, 2010)--An American convert to Islam with ties to Texas who allegedly called herself "Jihad Jane" online and who authorities say expressed a willingness to become a martyr on behalf of Muslims has been named in a federal indictment.

The indictment says Colleen LaRose used the Internet to recruit jihadist fighters and to help terrorists overseas, and that she even agreed to move to Europe to try to kill a Swede.

An official says she had targeted a Swedish cartoonist who depicted Mohammed with the body of a dog.

According to the indictment, she wrote to a co-conspirator last year that because of her blonde hair and blue eyes, she would be able to "blend in with many people" in Sweden.

Authorities say has close ties to Texas but lived near Philadelphia before moving to Europe in August of last year.

She was arrested in Philadelphia in October, and has been in federal custody since then.

A Justice Department official said the charges reflect "the evolving nature of the threat we face."

A boyfriend told the Philadelphia Daily News that he met LaRose in
Ennis several years ago and that nothing seemed amiss until she packed her clothes and moved out of their suburban Philadelphia apartment without warning in August, the day after his father's funeral.

Kurt Gorman of suburban Philadelphia said LaRose mostly spent her days at their Pennsburg apartment.

Gorman says he spent five years with LaRose and saw no violent tendencies.

He said he came home one day last summer and found her gone.

Gorman said he's still shocked by her arrest.

LaRose was arrested twice on public intoxication charges in Ferris, a Ferris Police Investigator Sam Love said Wednesday.

Love said LaRose was arrested in February 2001 and again in April 2002.

In each case, Love said, she paid her fines in city court.

Ferris is about 20 miles south of Dallas