A Pakistani teenager thought to be the youngest person ever accused of terror offenses in the United States has pleaded guilty to conspiring online with the woman known as Jihad Jane

Mohammad Hassan Khalid was only 15 years old when he began swapping messages with Colleen LaRose, a Pennsylvania woman who pleaded guilty to planning a European jihad and for conspiring to murder a Swedish political cartoonist. Outwardly living the American Dream, Khalid had secured a full scholarship to the prestigious Johns Hopkins University before he was arrested in the summer of 2011 by the FBI and put in federal custody at 17, which is rare for a juvenile. Pleading guilty to a single count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. Khalid, now 18, faces up to 15 years in prison. The gifted teenager led a secret life online and the high school honors student agreed to raise money and to help recruit terrorists for the planned jihad. While building his terrorist persona online, Khalid lived with his parents and siblings in an apartment in Ellicott City in Maryland. Meeting Colleen LaRose, aka Jihad Jane, on a chat room when he was 15, the youngster began conversing with her. Having converted to Islam, LaRose was appearing in jihadist YouTube videos and was plotting to kill Lars Vilks, a Swedish artist who had drawn a cartoon that had offended Muslims. Khalid had used Internet chat rooms to talk with Ali Charaf Damache, an Algerian man who has also been indicted with him on terror charges. The teenager believed that he would be part of a professional organized team, trained by al-Qaeda, to kill, kidnap, maim or injure persons or damage property in a foreign country. Messages sent on July 19, 2009, detail co-defendant Ali Charaf Damache, known as the Black Flag, telling Khalid that their group would be training with either al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb or the Islamic State of Iraq. The Algerian instructed teenage Khalid to actively recruit men and women with passports who could travel through European countries. The teenager also sent out a questionnaire for terrorists that he forwarded onto LaRose.