New York Times, 21 July 2010: A 20-year-old Virginia man who had made threatening statements about the television show “South Park” was arrested on Wednesday and charged with supporting the Shabab, a Somalia-based terrorist group, after he allegedly tried to board a flight to Africa with his infant son.

The man, a Muslim convert from Fairfax County, Va., named Zachary A. Chesser, had been in e-mail contact with Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born radical cleric now hiding in Yemen, prosecutors said. Mr. Chesser was briefly in the news in April after he posted on the Internet a statement that the makers of “South Park” might be killed for portraying the Prophet Muhammad in a bear suit.

In an unrelated case on Wednesday, another American convert to Islam, Paul G. Rockwood Jr., 35, of King Salmon, Alaska, admitted that he had been radicalized by reading Mr. Awlaki’s tracts on the Web and had prepared a list of 15 people he believed should be killed for “desecrating Islam.” . . .

. . . . The terrorism-related charges against two Americans, both devotees of Mr. Awlaki, are part of a marked increase in homegrown extremism in the United States, often influenced by radical material on the Internet. According to Justice Department statistics, 19 American citizens were charged in international terrorism cases in 2009 and 15 more so far this year. In case after case, investigators have discovered the writings and recordings of Mr. Awlaki. . . .

Alaskan Builds Terror Hit List; Pleads Guilty (KTVA-11, 21 July 2010)
. . . . Federal agents say the husband, 35-year-old Paul Gene Rockwood, Jr., aka “Bilal”, created a hit list of people he wanted to see executed. Prosecutors tell CBS 11 News that no one from Alaska was on the list, however, the list may have included American servicemen.

According to court documents, Rockwood was living in Virginia when he converted to Islam around the beginning of 2002. Shortly after converting, he began following the teachings of cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is known for promoting violent Jihad ideology. Prosecutors say while studying of al-Awlaki’s teachings, Rockwood developed a “personal conviction that it was his religious responsibility to exact revenge by death on anyone who desecrated Islam.” 

Prosecutors also say between 2002 and 2006, Rockwood began researching people to execute. Rockwood then moved to King Salmon in 2006, where court documents say he continued studying al-Awlaki’s violent ideologies, “Constraints on the Path to Jihad” and “44 Ways to Jihad.” . . . .

Jihadist hit list leads to terrorism case (Anchorage Daily News, 21 July 2010)
A King Salmon weatherman and his British-born, stay-at-home wife on Wednesday became the first people to face a domestic terrorism case in Alaska when they were charged — and pleaded guilty — to lying to the FBI about a jihadist hit list. Red-bearded Paul Gene Rockwood Jr., 35, a convert to Islam and a follower of a radical, anti-American cleric, faces an eight-year prison sentence — the maximum — under his plea deal. Nadia Piroska Maria Rockwood, 36, a dual U.S. and British citizen, is set to get five years probation, which she will be allowed to serve in Great Britain.

The blue-eyed couple admitted in back-to-back hearings in U.S. District Court that they misled counterterrorism agents in Anchorage about the source and nature of an assassination list containing the names of about 15 people in the Lower 48 they deemed enemies of Islam. Charging documents filed by the U.S. Attorney’s office said Paul Rockwood drew up the hit list based on websites he read while a federal employee in King Salmon and considered shooting his targets or sending them package bombs. . . .

Documents:

• ALASKA MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO MAKING FALSE STATEMENTS IN DOMESTIC TERRORISM INVESTIGATION (DOJ press release, 21 July 2010)
• US v Paul Rockwood, Plea Agreement (.pdf)