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Why did this woman marry a terrorist?
When the rare Westerner decides to join ranks with al Qaeda, that person becomes exceedingly dangerous, says 60 Minutes producer Howard Rosenberg.
This week, Rosenberg introduced us to a European man named Morten Storm who did just that: he converted to Islam and joined the jihad against the West.
"Storm was exactly the kind of person that al Qaeda would like to have in its ranks," says Rosenberg. "A Western person with a Western passport-- can you imagine the kind of damage he could have inflicted had he chosen to go in that direction?"
Video courtship of a terrorist and his bride
Fortunately, Morten Storm didn't go in that direction. As he confessed to correspondent Lara Logan on 60 Minutes this week, Storm ultimately had a change of heart and, he says, began working with the CIA against al Qaeda.
But a 34-year-old blonde European woman named "Aminah" is still a threat.
She was born Irena Horek, raised Catholic, and worked with special needs children. Then, inexplicably, she converted to Islam in her early 30s, changed her name to "Aminah," and married an al Qaeda leader. (The marriage was brokered by Morten Storm, through a series of remarkable dating videos shown on 60 Minutes this week.)
After her husband, al Qaeda leader Anwar Al Awlaki, was killed in a U.S. drone strike, Aminah expressed a desire to become a suicide bomber and join her husband in martyrdom.
"She's a dangerous woman," says Rosenberg. "Would you be comfortable sitting on an airplane next to Irena Horak, aka Aminah? I wouldn't."
Curious to learn more about Aminah's radical life change, Rosenberg and Logan's 60 Minutes team went to Horek's hometown to interview people who had known the mysterious woman who was once a competitive athlete who liked to party with friends and advocate for the disabled.
Watch this 60 Minutes Overtime video to hear more about Aminah's remarkable transformation.
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