Fox News, 26 July 2010: Within hours of his arrest, the Virginia man who allegedly threatened the creators of the television show “South Park” and then tried to join an Al Qaeda-linked group in East Africa told U.S. agents he wanted to help the FBI in their fight against terrorism, according to federal prosecutors and the man’s own defense attorney.
Federal agents arrested 20-year-old Zachary Chesser on Wednesday, after a months-long investigation into at least two alleged attempts to join the Somalia-based group al-Shabaab, which has been fighting to establish a strict Muslim state in Somalia and has pledged its allegiance to Usama bin Laden. Chesser is now charged with providing material support to a terrorist group.
On the day of his arrest, Chesser told FBI agents he was “willing to assist the FBI with a few things,” but in exchange he wanted the FBI to send him overseas, possibly to East Africa, Justice Department lawyer John Gibbs told a federal judge during a hearing on Monday. Public defender Michael Nachmanoff acknowledged that Chesser talked about “potentially working for” or “working with” the FBI.
Only months earlier, in a message posted online, Chesser denounced FBI Director Robert Mueller as the U.S. government’s “chief spy,” saying it is “both ironic and promising” that many Americans had already joined al-Shabaab.
“Robert Mueller said he is ‘absolutely’ afraid that more heroes like [them] … will answer the call of Jihad,” Chesser wrote in an online message posted April 1, according to charging documents filed in the case. “This is a call to action and a call to fulfill your obligation as a Muslim to defend your brothers and sisters.”
Chesser’s other writings were even more threatening, prosecutors told the judge on Monday as they urged that Chesser be detained until trial. During the FBI’s investigation, agents found a “hand-written document” titled “How to Destroy the West,” according to Gibbs. The document, allegedly written by Chesser, discussed ways of attacking the United States and other countries, including cyber-attacks, vehicles filled with explosives, and the bio-agent ricin, Gibbs said.
In addition, Chesser communicated several times with Anwar Awlaki, the U.S.-born cleric tied to several recent terrorist plots inside the United States, prosecutors said. He also posted an array of “extremist” videos, “jihad propaganda” and other potentially dangerous materials online, including a leaked version of sensitive Transportation Security Administration guidelines and a message suggesting the creators of the show “South Park” could face death for their depiction of the prophet Mohammed, according to prosecutors. . . . .
♦ CI CENTRE COURSE: 362–Informant Development for Law Enforcement to Fight Terrorism
DOJ, 21 July 2010: United States Attorney Karen L. Loeffler and FBI Special Agent in Charge Kevin Fryslie announced that Paul Gene Rockwood, Jr., a former King Salmon, Alaska, resident, pleaded guilty today in United States District Court to making false statements to the FBI in a domestic terrorism investigation. Rockwood’s spouse, Nadia Piroska Maria Rockwood, also pleaded guilty today to making false statements to the FBI in connection to the investigation of her husband.
At a hearing today before Chief United States District Court Judge Ralph R. Beistline in U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska, Paul Gene Rockwood, Jr., 35, pleaded guilty to one count of willfully making false statements to the FBI involving domestic terrorism. Under the terms of his plea agreement, Rockwood has agreed to a sentence of eight years in prison followed by three years of supervised released, the maximum penalty that can be imposed for this violation.
Also today, Nadia Piroska Maria Rockwood, 36, the spouse of Paul Rockwood, pleaded guilty to one count of willfully making false statements to the FBI. Under the terms of her plea agreement, she has agreed to a sentence of five years of probation.
According to the plea agreements and other documents filed with the court, Paul Rockwood converted to Islam in late 2001, or early 2002, while living in Virginia, and later became a strict adherent to the violent jihad-promoting ideology of cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki. Paul Rockwood held a personal conviction that it was his religious responsibility to exact revenge by death on anyone who desecrated Islam and, while residing in Virginia, he began researching possible targets for execution.
According to the filed documents, after he moved to King Salmon in 2006, Paul Rockwood continued his adherence to Al-Awlaki’s ideology and began researching the method and means to exact revenge on his intended targets, which included U.S. service members. Among other topics, he researched explosives and remote triggering devices. In 2009, he began sharing his ideas about committing acts of domestic terrorism with others, including the possibility of using mail bombs or killing targets by gunshot to the head. By early 2010, he formalized his list to include 15 specific targets all outside the State of Alaska.
In April 2010, Paul Rockwood gave his written target list to his wife, Nadia, who, knowing of its purpose, carried the list with her on a trip to Anchorage. The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) subsequently obtained the target list. On May 19, 2010, JTTF agents questioned Paul Rockwood and provided him a copy of the target list. In response to agents’ questions, Rockwood made false statements, denying he had created such a list, denying the purpose of the list and denying ever having such a list.
JTTF agents also questioned Nadia Rockwood on May 19, 2010, about transporting the target list authored by her husband to another person. In response, Nadia Rockwood made false statements, including deceptively claiming that she had delivered a book or a common letter to another person, among other deceptive explanations.
This investigation was conducted by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in Anchorage. The prosecution is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Steven E. Skrocki and Bryan D. Schroder, of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska, and Trial Attorney Paul Ahern, of the Counterterrorism Section in the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
FBI, 21 July 2010: Zachary Adam Chesser, 20, of Fairfax County, Va., was arrested today on charges that he provided material support to al Shabaab, a designated foreign terrorist organization.
Neil H. MacBride, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Shawn Henry, Assistant Director in Charge (ADIC) of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, made the announcement after Chesser was arrested and the charging documents were made public.
“This case exposes the disturbing reality that extreme radicalization can happen anywhere, including Northern Virginia,” said U.S. Attorney MacBride. “This young man is accused of seeking to join al Shabaab, a brutal terrorist organization with ties to al Qaeda. These allegations underscore the need for continued vigilance against homegrown terror threats.”
“We can’t fight terrorists alone,” said FBI ADIC Henry. “Religious leaders of all faiths, family members and particularly the younger members of our communities need to speak up and speak out against individuals who participate in actions like those alleged here.”
On Feb. 29, 2008, the U.S. Department of State designated al Shabaab as a foreign terrorist organization, describing it as a violent and brutal extremist group based in Somalia with a number of individuals affiliated with al Qaeda. This designation prohibits providing material support or resources to al Shabaab.
According to an affidavit filed in court, Chesser, aka Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee, volunteered to federal agents that he attempted on two occasions to travel to Somalia to join al Shabaab as a foreign fighter. After he was prevented from boarding a flight from New York to Uganda on July 10, 2010, Chesser allegedly admitted to agents that he intended to travel from Uganda to Somalia. Chesser had attempted to board the plane with his infant son, and court records allege that he brought his son with him as part of his “cover” to avoid detection of his intention to join al Shabaab in Somalia.
The court affidavit indicates that in a series of interviews with federal law enforcement, Chesser allegedly discussed in detail how he has maintained several online profiles dedicated to extremist jihad propaganda. These profiles were allegedly used by Chesser to post pro-jihad messages and videos online. These postings allegedly included an article detailing the prerequisites involved in leaving for jihad, which closely follows the steps Chesser took before his July 10 attempt to leave the United States in order to go fight in Somalia.
This case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia and Trial Attorney John T. Gibbs of the Counterterrorism Section in the Justice Department’s National Security Division are prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.
Criminal complaints are only charges and not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty
‘South Park’ critic in Va. faces unrelated terror charge (AP, 22 July 2010)
A Virginia man known for posting an online warning to the creators of “South Park” that they risked death by mocking the Prophet Muhammad was arrested Wednesday and charged with offering himself as a fighter to a Somali terror group linked to al Qaeda.
Zachary A. Chesser, 20, of Oakton, Va., was scheduled to make an initial appearance Thursday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. He is charged with providing material support to a terrorist group, but he has not been charged in regard to the “South Park” online posting.
Mr. Chesser 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, Mr. 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. . . .
ABC News, 19 July 2010: The radical Muslim cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki, whose killing has been approved by President Barack Obama, today taunted the American President and the United States military in an audio address posted online.
“Imperial hubris is leading American to its fate: a war of attrition, a continuous hemorrhage that would end with the fall and splintering of the United States of America,” said Awlaki. The site for the audio message features a picture of him juxtaposed with those Major Nidal Hassan, accused of the Ft. Hood shootings, and Omar Farouq Abdulmutallab, charged with the attempted bombing of an American jetliner on Christmas Day, 2009. . . . .
. . . . The American born and educated cleric also called on Muslims in the U.S. to do as he did in waging jihad against the U.S. “I could not reconcile between living in the US and being a Muslim, and I eventually came to the conclusion that jihad against America is binding upon myself, just as it is binding on every other able Muslim,” said Awlaki in the message, speaking in English. . . . .
AP, 22 June 2010: Calling himself a Muslim soldier, a defiant Pakistan-born U.S. citizen pleaded guilty Monday to carrying out the failed Times Square car bombing and left a sinister warning that unless the U.S. leaves Muslim lands alone, “we will be attacking U.S.”
Wearing a white skull cap, prison smocks and a dark beard, Faisal Shahzad entered the plea in U.S. District Court in Manhattan just days after a federal grand jury indicted him on 10 terrorism and weapons counts, some of which carried mandatory life prison sentences. He pleaded guilty to them all.
U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum challenged Shahzad repeatedly with questions such as whether he had worried about killing children in Times Square. “One has to understand where I’m coming from,” Shahzad calmly replied. “I consider myself … a Muslim soldier.”
The 30-year-old described his effort to set off a bomb in an SUV he parked in Times Square on May 1, saying he chose the warm Saturday night because it would be crowded with people he could injure or kill. . . . . Shahzad dismissed the judge’s question about the children by saying the U.S. didn’t care when children were killed in Muslim countries.
“It’s a war. I am part of the answer to the U.S. terrorizing the Muslim nations and the Muslim people,” he said. “On behalf of that, I’m revenging the attack. Living in the United States, Americans only care about their people, but they don’t care about the people elsewhere in the world when they die.”
Cedarbaum also asked Shahzad if he understood that the people in Times Square might not have anything to do with what happened overseas. “The people select the government. We consider them all the same,” Shahzad said during the hour-long hearing.
Shahzad made the plea and an accompanying statement as Cedarbaum began asking him a lengthy series of questions to ensure he understood his rights. She asked him if he understood some charges carried mandatory life sentences and that he might spend the rest of his life in prison. He said he did.
At one point, she asked him if he was sure he wanted to plead guilty. He said he wanted “to plead guilty and 100 times more” to let the U.S. know that if it did not get out of Iraq and Afghanistan, halt drone attacks and stop meddling in Muslim lands, “we will be attacking U.S.” . . . .
Times Square car bomber details his chilling plot (AP, 22 June 2010)
Admitted terrorist Faisal Shahzad was so eager to tell how he plotted to kill Americans in Times Square, he went to court with a prepared statement. U.S. District Judge Miriam Cedarbaum refused to hear him read it Monday, instead challenging the Pakistan-born American citizen to just say “what happened.” . . . Shahzad traced his plot to a 2009 trip to Pakistan that began only three months after he received his U.S. citizenship. . . .
Remorseless Times Square car bomber Faisal Shahzad warns: ‘We will be attacking the U.S.’ (New York Daily News, 22 June 2010)
A self-proclaimed “Muslim soldier” who bungled a plot to bomb Times Square promised Monday that others will succeed where he failed. A remorseless Faisal Shahzad pleaded guilty to the frightening scheme to blow up the Crossroads of the World on a busy Saturday night, when it was packed with New Yorkers and tourists. “It’s a war,” Shahzad, 30, said in a hateful screed to Manhattan Federal Judge Miriam Cedarbaum. . . . “One has to understand where I’m coming from,” Shahzad told the judge. “I consider myself … a Muslim soldier. And it’s a war to kill people,” he coldly declared.
Wearing a white knit skullcap and a blue shirt and pants, the former Elizabeth Arden account analyst-turned-Jihad Joe calmly detailed how he learned to make bombs in the militant Waziristan stronghold in Pakistan last year. He returned to the United States in early February, with $4,000 in Taliban cash. The terror group continued sending him money in two payments – $5,000 on Feb. 25 from a co-conspirator and $7,000 more on April 10. He used the money to buy a Nissan Pathfinder off craigslist and parts to turn the vehicle into a crude rolling bomb. He parked the SUV near a packed theater in the Marriott Marquis hotel – and tried to ignite the bomb. He says he still doesn’t know why the bomb didn’t explode. . . .
Intel: Times Square bomber was eager to attack US (AP, 22 June 2010)
The Pakistani-American who pleaded guilty to trying to bomb Times Square was determined to strike the U.S. even before he received training by the Taliban, but his time spent with militants close to the Afghan border steeled his resolve further, alleged accomplices detained in Pakistan have told investigators. . . .
Faisal Shahzad Pleads Guilty in Manhattan Federal Court to 10 Federal Crimes Arising from Attempted Car Bombing in Times Square (FBI, 21 June 2010)
♦ CI CENTRE COURSE: 361–The Global Jihadist Threat Doctrine
