Undercover Mother Fights Terror
Friday, October 22, 2004
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CONRAD, Mont. — In small-town Montana, one woman has taken up arms in the fight against terrorism.
Shannen Rossmiller (search), a municipal judge and mother of three, spends her free time hunting down terrorists on the Internet using 23 different aliases.
"Of course I can't fix the War on Terror, but I may be able to do something to help out," Rossmiller told FOX News.
Rossmiller, who learned Arabic, wakes up early in the morning and pores over the various e-mail accounts she's created. Any information about attacks in the works is handed to the authorities.
"A lot of times I'm from Pakistan, but if I'm not sure I always say I'm from Germany," she said.
Rossmiller has been able to use her skills to dig deep into the most secretive terrorist Web sites and communicate with people overseas, but one contact came as a surprise.
National Guardsman Spc. Ryan G. Anderson (search), a Muslim convert from Fort Lewis, Wash., who was weeks away from being deployed to Iraq, made the mistake of offering Al Qaeda (search) classified information on how best to attack American troops.
But the person he had exchanged some 30 e-mails with wasn't on the other side of the globe – it was Rossmiller, just two states away in her Montana kitchen.
With her help, military prosecutors were able to convict Anderson, who was sentenced to life in prison.
Click on the video box near the top of this story to watch a report by FOX News' Carol McKinley.
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