Unrelated to South Park, at least -- there certainly is a common thread connecting his actions. In this case, Zachary Chesser decided he wanted to join al-Shabaab, the perpetrators of the recent massacre in Uganda. Interestingly, he also planned to travel to Somalia through via Uganda to cover his tracks.
An update on this story. "'South Park' critic faces unrelated terror charge," by Matthew Barakat for the Associated Press, July 21 (thanks to all who sent this in):
McLEAN, Va. - A man known for posting an online warning that the creators of "South Park" risked death by mocking the Prophet Muhammad was arrested Wednesday and charged with providing material support to a Somali terror group linked to al-Qaida.
Zachary A. Chesser, 20, of Oakton, Va., told FBI agents that he twice tried to travel to Somalia to join al-Shabab as a fighter. On the most recent attempt, earlier this month, Chesser brought his infant son with him as he tried to board a flight from New York to Uganda so he would look less suspicious, according to an FBI affidavit.
Chesser was barred from the July 10 flight and told by the Transportation Security Administration that he was on the no-fly list, according to the affidavit.
While Chesser told the FBI that he had intended on July 10 to join al-Shabab, he told them in a July 14 interview that he had changed his mind because of the July 11 bombing in Uganda that killed more than 75 people watching the World Cup, for which al-Shabab claimed responsibility.
But leading up to July 10, Chesser said he had corresponded with al-Shabab members and expected to undergo a six-week basic training and then serve as a "foreign fighter" with al-Shabab in Mogadishu. According to the affidavit, Chesser expected he would be asked to serve as a propagandist but that he had been willing to fight on the front lines.
The affidavit also states that Chesser corresponded with the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki last year. Al-Awlaki is a U.S. citizen now living in Yemen who has recently been designated a terrorist by the U.S. government. Al-Awlaki is believed to have corresponded with several alleged terrorists, including Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the U.S. Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people in November at Fort Hood, Tex.
Chesser also told authorities that he used several online profiles to spread terrorist propaganda.
The affidavit makes only a brief mention of Chesser's warnings to the "South Park" creators, saying that Chesser told authorities his parents were no longer speaking to him because of death threats they received after Chesser posted his warnings.
In April, Chesser posted a warning on the revolutionmuslim.com website that Trey Parker and Matt Stone could face the same fate as a Dutch filmmaker [Theo Van Gogh] who was killed after making a movie about a woman who rejected Muhammad's teachings. An episode of the show depicted Muhammad in a bear costume.
At the time, Chesser said his online posting was not a threat.
"It's not a threat, but it really is a likely outcome," Chesser told FoxNews.com. "They're going to be basically on a list in the back of the minds of a large number of Muslims. It's just the reality."...
Is Zach Chesser an Islamophobe?
"he had intended on July 10 to join al-Shabab...[but]...changed his mind because of the July 11 bombing in Uganda that killed more than 75 people watching the World Cup."
Um, yeah, because Shabaab never killed anybody else before and it was always just like the boy scouts until the World Cup bombing.
sarc/off
Whose "Prophet", Mr. Barakat? I didn't realize that the AP had elevated the Mighty Mo as the "prophet" of the Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Confucists, Innuits, and the occasional Jehovah's Witness.
Please, do explain.
LOL this makes my day. Another western loser of galactic proportion bites the dust.
The July 11 soccer bombing wasn't the first time Somali Muslims attacked people in a soccer related event...the Somalis have killed children playing soccer, the Somalis have killed people watching soccer, the Somalis have killed people wearing Soccer team sportswear....Soccer Jihad is nothing new...
The South Park incident is historically important because it reveals the true nature of American Muslim leadership.
A great injustice was done in the name of their religion, and they let it stand.
They did not show solidarity with South Park, or with the First Amendment, instead they threw "Revolution Muslim" under the bus, placed blame elsewhere, and basically sat on their hands; happy to live with the results, and relived of the responsibility.
They didn’t rally, protest, or rage for the freedom of speech, they only held the coat for those who would try to kill that freedom.
It may not rank up there with "Remember the Alamo", but do remember the South Park incident; it was highly revealing.
Pulsar, it sounds like the Somalis are big-time soccer fans. Maybe we should have drones air-drop thousands of soccer balls all over the country. Breaking up the resulting games might keep the Moslem fanatics busy for a while; and it might provoke a backlash against the fanatics.
"They're going to be basically on a list in the back of the minds of a large number of Muslims. IT'S JUST THE REALITY."...
Yes, the reality that Islam is not a Religion of peace , but in fact a Cult of hatered and intolerance founded by a Warlord bandit. "It's just the reality" as he say's
More and more people are beginning to patterns and are starting to take Muslims at their word. A good start.
meant to type :
More and more people are beginning to see patterns and are starting to take Muslims at their word. A good start.
True to form, the (A)bsolutly (P)athetic, manages to make it through this whole article without once mentioning ISLAM!!
If you don't think that our Founding Fathers are spinning in their graves about the lack of a FREE PRESS then you don't know history. Bending over to appease an ideology that is trying to destroy our liberties is just plain stupid.
"An episode of the show depicted Muhammad in a bear costume."
What an insult to bears ...
Good catch!
Mo isn't my prophet either and I'm really tired hearing or reading "the prophet mohammed" instead of islam's or muslim's prophet mohammed.
Hear this, mo may be the prophet of muslims but he is not everyone's prophet so please make the distinction in future.
I will make sure I remind any writer who does this, I've had enough of creeping sharia.
do you remember the big stink that the Muslims threw when Soccer balls imprinted with the flags of many nations were given to Pakistani and Afghanistani children?......
WPF,
I posted the same comment on the AP site, and in thirty minutes already have five "thumbs up".
I'm glad so many others noticed this glaring error in this POS article.
Don't get to excited he hasn't been sentenced yet.
Good, and now this Zachary Chesser, who joins terrorists and earlier in a calculated and pre-meditated fashion incited murder against American freedom of expression, should go to jail for the rest of his life.
As for Anwar al-Awlaki, he already has issued contracts -- death fatwas -- on Americans, such as the poor girl who started Draw Muhammad Day. Al-Awlaki should be captured or killed, now.
As you know, Robert Spencer, too, occasionally objects when non-Muslim journalists refer in their news stories to "the Prophet Muhammad." It's as if everyone in the world were suddenly Muslim. Spencer was probably the first to object to that ugly media obsequiousness and use instead formulations like "prophet of Islam." Non-Muslim journalists, when they speak of "the Prophet Muhammad," generally do so out of cowardice and conformism.
What if journalists, in referring to JC, spoke of "our Lord" in deference to Christians, or used similar religious formulations? But since Christians don't come out of the woodwork threatening death to unbelievers, journalists have no problem affecting a "brave" pose and being "boldly" irreverent to Christians. Then the standards change when it comes to Islam; journalists suddenly find all sorts of rationales and ethical arguments for showing "respect." A bunch of phonies.
Traeh,
I very well know that Robert calls out the dhimmi journalists when they make these specious references. But Marisol posted the story, so I felt obliged to step in.
Absolutely no disrespect to Marisol intended. An A+ to your post, nonetheless.
Rope, hang, etc...Obviously Zachary Chesser's posting brought him to the attention of the FBI, and they were ready to nab him when the opportunity came around. Nice work, Feds.
I am against Zachary Chesser's threat of violence against Comedy Central. If he's linked to terrorist activities, I hope he gets put away. That is all.
I do not see Comedy Central as a brave battler for First Amendment Rights. In fact, I see it as part of the craven, PeeCee, Left-wing subversion of the First Amendment going on in America today. The fact that they caved in the face of Muslim threats shows that they can't be trusted to stand for the First Amendment when it counts. When have they ever satirized people who would sue others for "hate speech"? When have they ever satirized the in-your-face attitude of the homosexual network? Frankly, someone with a better sense of humor than mine cold probably do a rather funny shtick about "hate crimes" and how they're distinguished from "love crimes" or "respect crimes" to underscore the moral obtuseness of our legal circles. But I don't think that the Comedy Central people would run it.
If the issue were ONLY the insulting messages that South Park and other Comedy Central productions level at traditional religions (never against logical positivism, Marxism, or other "secular isms"), I'd frankly be in solidarity with the Muslims. As a Christian, I refuse to watch Comedy Central and quite frankly hope that they one day go bankrupt. And I'll add that South Park is among the most tasteless, insulting, and downright foolish shows they produce.
The writers of tasteless South Park
Thought poking Islam was a Lark.
Muzzies wanted their heads,
So they hid under their beds,
And remain hidden in the dark.
How right you are, Traeh!
Actually, I'm fanatasizing with the idea that if we do get laws that solicitously protect the right of over-sensitive minorities to not be offended, I might tape a few egergiously anti-Christian Comedy Central acts and sue for hate speech--with the aim of driving Comedy Central into bankruptcy. If I lose with the US Supreme Court ultimately deciding to re-instate the First Amendment, it's a win.
Most journalists in America today seem to be part of a knee-jerk Leftist consensus that doesn't really trust the First Amendment that made journalism--rather than ideological hack-writing--possible. Why? The First Amendment allows the other guy to make his point.
Once in a while, now that the Muslims want to export the Theo van Gogh treatment to America, some jounralist or comedian gives us Christians a condescending pat on the head about our being such good sports. Frankly--and may God forgive me for such thoughts--I'd really like to grab the next journalistic or comedic hand that pats me on the head and take a nice, big, juicy, healthy bite out of it (bone, cartilage, and all).
It's not a threat, but it really is a likely outcome...
Is advanced logic one of the Islamic Scientific Achievements that Prez Obama extolled in his Cairo speech?
*** 8:12 ***
Chesser told FoxNews.com. "They're going to be basically on a list in the back of the minds of a large number of Muslims."
Is this large number of Moslems the tiny minority that Prez Dubya bemoaned?
*** 4:142 ***
It's just the reality.
Reading this, I'm disappointed to learn that Moslem Activists have no appreciation for the Fictive Reality that enables them so.
Is Zach Chesser an Islamophobe?
Well...Let him take the "Islamophobia Test" !!!
http://crossmuslims.blogspot.com/2010/04/are-you-islamophobe.html
Whose "Prophet", Mr. Barakat? I didn't realize that the AP had elevated the Mighty Mo as the "prophet"...
Reminds of when the late, great Tim Russert had Hoop on his Meet The Press show and timidly referred to the the Holy Prophet Mohammed to the glowering Hoop, who glowered more disgustedly at Tim for his ignorance of Islam.
*** Bukhari Vol 2 Bk 24 Nbr 555 ***
Later Tim asked Hoop another question, this one about the Holy Koran. Hoop grimaced, no doubt thinking that Tim was asking too many questions.