According to an AP report today, federal authorities allege that Zeinab Taleb-Jedi, an Iranian widow who became a U.S. citizen, was allegedly an official of Mujahedeen Khalq, an Iraq-based terrorist organization. One court document says Taleb-Jedi was on a council “responsible for making leadership decisions . . . including approving . . . acts of terrorism.” She is described as having come to this country on a student visa in 1978 to pursue a master’s in political science in Georgia and having lived in Queens before settling in Virginia.

As British counterterrorist expert Anthony Glees advocates in “When Students Turn to Terror,” and as I noted in “Thin Red Line,” we need to know much more about the “tipping point” at which individuals turn to terror, in both local and foreign environments. The public also needs much greater assurance of the institution of rigorous screening to exclude dangerous students from entering the U.S.–and of similar serious, pro-active security measures on campuses and elsewhere.