In addition to promoting global jihad, Samantha Lewthwaite, the so-called "White Widow," appears now to be giving advice on how morally upstanding women can keep their husbands happy. In a diary found by Kenyan police, who are investigating her role in the shopping mall massacre there earlier this year, Lewthwaite listed the key priorities for a dutiful homemaker: "When a man comes home — wife beautiful, food prepared, kids clean ... immediately he will forget the pain of his day; he will always want to come home."

Any questions, ladies?

When not advising on the finer points of domestic bliss, Lewthwaite — the widow of one of the suicide bombers involved in the deadly July 7, 2005, attacks in London — has been in hiding for the past few years in Africa. Experts believe she is now a leader in al-Shabab, an al-Qaida affiliate based in Somalia. With her "White Widow" moniker, she has become a potent symbol for many extremist militants, given the ultimate sacrifice made by her husband, Germaine Lindsay, himself a convert to Islam, and her own growing notoriety since 7/7.

The mother of three from Buckinghamshire, England, who converted to Islam at 17 and was pregnant at the time that her husband died, now finds herself on international "most wanted" lists. She is being pursued by the CIA, as well as Scotland Yard. Interpol has issued a "red notice" for her to 190 countries around the world. Why? In September, al-Shabab orchestrated and executed the Westgate shopping mall attack in Nairobi, which resulted in more than 60 deaths. Although many believed at the time that Lewthwaite was directly involved in the bloody assault, she has not been captured, and there is no solid evidence linking her to the mall that day.

Her 2011 diary was uncovered by Kenyan security forces at the house in Mombasa where she was known to be hiding. She is thought to have been involved in plans to bomb hotels in the resort town, as well as other terrorist activity in the region.

In addition to tips on how to keep a man satisfied, her diary included plans to open a juice bar, including a list of possible fruit smoothie concoctions she could sell. The prices (in Kenyan shillings) are set out methodically, as are plans to eventually offer frozen yogurt. Such aspirations seem incongruous with her role as an organizer of terror attacks, just as this role seems incongruous with her father's service as a British soldier in Northern Ireland.

Kenyan authorities had previously turned up a poem believed to be written by Lewthwaite, titled "Ode to Osama," in which she recounted her love and admiration for former al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, as well as her desire to continue in the jihad.

The radicalization of "homegrown" extremists such as Lewthwaite raises difficult questions for governments around the world. Border security and increased international surveillance can be helpful in identifying and tracking threats that appear on the horizon, outside the country. But when individuals born and raised in a country turn against that country, the risks multiply very rapidly. It can be much more difficult to react to a threat when that threat comes from within.

Perhaps Lewthwaite is the financial, tactical and logistic leader that some now believe her to be. Perhaps she has helped transform al-Shabab into a more effective and more lethal terrorist organization. But at the end of the day, she is still the 30-year-old mother of three from a small English village who, when not planning to blow up the Kenyan Parliament or other suitable targets, dreams of owning a juice bar.

It would be easy to demonize someone like Lewthwaite as being either brainwashed or so full of evil as to be beyond empathy. If instead we try to maintain a picture of her as someone with hopes and dreams similar, in many ways, to our own while acknowledging her alleged terrorist activities, the process of perfunctorily explaining her away becomes much harder.

The blood on the hands of her husband and the al-Shabab militants whom she now travels with is worthy of unqualified condemnation, as is any role she herself had in these deaths. Looking for explanations is not the same as looking for justifications. It is, however, imperative for us to better understand the process by which individuals are radicalized and then used for these destructive purposes.

Lewthwaite's move from Britain to Africa mirrors a geographic shift in where the greatest threats from terrorism now lie. Equally important, her own drift over the years into militant extremism demonstrates the wider danger that we must appreciate and acknowledge and ultimately address if the proponents of terror are to be defeated.

Timothy Spangler is a writer and commentator who divides his time between Los Angeles and London. His radio show, "The Bigger Picture with Timothy Spangler," airs every Sunday night from 10 p.m. to midnight Pacific time on KRLA AM 870. To find out more about Timothy Spangler and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.