Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez told members of a House subcommittee Thursday that his colleagues in the Justice Department Civil Rights Division are trying to quickly finish work on improvements to the 20-year-old Americans with Disabilities Act.
Thomas Perez (photo by Channing Turner / Main Justice)
Perez told members of the House Judiciary Constitution, civil rights and civil liberties subcommittee that the division has ramped up its efforts to finalize new regulations for two titles of the ADA, which became law on July 26, 1990. Title II concerns accessibility of public services, such as those provided by state and local governments. Title III deals with accessibility in public accommodations and commercial facilities.
“We are feverishly working on those and hope to complete them as soon as possible,” Perez said.
Perez said the DOJ is also seeking public comment on four proposed rules to create accessibility requirements for websites, movies, equipment and 911 call-taking technologies. Attorney General Eric Holder announced the proposed rules Wednesday.
The Justice Department has periodic reviews of ADA enforcement. Rules proposed for public comment by the George W. Bush administration in the summer of 2008 were put on hold when the Barack Obama administration came into office and paused all rule-making throughout the government
The Civil Rights Division chief has said in the past that the Justice Department believes Title III of the ADA — which requires some businesses to make accommodations for the disabled — applies to some technological innovations like the Internet that has emerged since the law came into effect in 1990.
“Technology should be the best friend of a person with disabilities,” Perez said.
Also on Thursday, the DOJ’s Disability Rights Section released new guidelines for hospitals and physicians on ensuring ADA compliance. The guidelines give suggestions for how to ensure doorways and exam rooms meet with accessibility requirements and encourages hospitals and doctor’s offices to train staff on how to properly provide assistance to people in wheelchairs.
Panel members lauded the ADA. But they agreed that work on disability rights isn’t done yet.
Subcommittee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said more must be done to help people living with disabilities in the 21st century.
“In the 20 years since the ADA’s passage, technology has revolutionized the way we work, learn, shop and socialize,” Nadler said. “While these advances ultimately may offer individuals with disabilities unprecedented access and opportunities, we have yet to see that full potential realized.”
James Burch, acting Director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance (photo by Channing Turner / Main Justice)
A top official in the Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs defended alternatives to drug incarceration Thursday before a House panel — despite internal DOJ criticism that the office has poorly monitored its grants funding such programs.
James Burch II, acting Director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance — an office within OJP — testified on the benefits provided by programs that offer alternatives to jail time before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
“The Office of Justice Programs … has shifted its focus to more strategic, more effective and sustainable approaches to addressing crime that recognizes the critical role of evidence-based strategies and sentencing alternatives,” Burch said. “This means supporting programs that are backed by evidence of effectiveness, not simply ideology.”
Appealing to fiscal expedience in a time of tight budgets, Burch advocated programs that prevent and divert individuals from entering the criminal justice system. His big sell Thursday was the effectiveness of specialty courts such as “drug courts,” which exclusively address drug-related offenses.
“We must capitalize on the opportunities presented at the front end of the system,” he said. “Many adults and juveniles have been successfully diverted from further offending by programs that use the leverage and the monitoring power of the court.”
Burch said his office is conducting research to identify effective drug court practices and improve grants administered by the OJP.
According to the OJP, more than 50 percent of individuals released from prison will encounter legal trouble again within three years, with drug offenders making up the majority of recidivists. Beyond drug courts, the OJP’s grant programs provide services to a variety of high-risk offenders in the hopes of reducing the number of repeat offenses.
Attorney General Eric Holder touted the importance of prisoner reentry programs such as drug courts earlier this month — announcing an interagency working group to focus exclusively on reentry issues like housing, job training and specialty courts.
However, the DOJ’s Inspector General’s office released a report Wednesday that criticized the OJP for not effectively tracking how grantees spend funding. In an audit of 10 grant prisoner reentry programs worth about $17.9 million from January 2005 to November 2009, the office found little documentation that the office followed up after awarding the grants.
It also found that OJP had not established an effective system to gauge whether offender reentry programs were meeting their goals, and it pressed the office to improve management and oversight.
Burch sought to differentiate his office’s new programs — the Second Chance Act reentry programs — from the older programs that appeared in the audit.
“It’s important to know that both of the programs that the IG looked at are programs that were in the past,” Burch said in an interview after the hearing. “They were in the last administration, and they are completed.”
He said the IG’s report on the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative and prisoner reentry initiative were already under review by his office. With the Second Chance Act reentry programs, Burch said things will be different.
“Many of those things they pointed out are things we knew about and had already taken measures to address,” he said.
Before beginning the Second Chance program, Burch said his office brought in a team of outside evaluators, and based on their suggestions, they implemented “rigorous monitoring efforts and financial control.”
“The difference in the way we are involved in these programs … is night-and-day,” he added. “When we met with the IG a number of times on this report, our conversations were very much along the lines of ‘We hear you with that. We’re doing things very differently with Second Chance.’”
James W. Spertus (The Law Offices of James W. Spertus)
The girlfriend of movie star Mel Gibson met with a former federal prosecutor and computer crimes expert in Los Angeles Thursday, the celebrity news website TMZ reported.
Oksana Grigorieva met with the James W. Spertus. The lawyer declined to discuss the meeting with TMZ.
Spertus previously served for seven years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Central District of California. According to his law firm bio, Spertus helped found the office’s Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section and tried criminal cases involving trade secret theft, computer intrusions, and intellectual property theft.
After leaving the DOJ, he also served as Vice President at the Motion Picture Association of America, Director of U.S. Anti-Piracy Operations.
Gibson and Grigorieva are in the midst of a bitter custody fight over their young daughter. Earlier this month, the former model released tapes she secretly recorded of the actor threatening and berating her. Gibson has alleged that Grigorieva fabricated the tapes and used them to try to extort money from him. The L.A. County Sheriff’s department is investigating.
Additional reporting by Andrew Ramonas.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is slated to consider two U.S. Attorney nominees at its meeting next Thursday.
They are:
John Walsh (Hill & Robbins)
- John F. Walsh (Colorado): The partner at Hill & Robbins PC would succeed Troy Eid, who resigned as U.S. Attorney last year. President Barack Obama nominated Walsh on April 14. Read more about him here.
Stephanie Villafuerte, the deputy chief of staff to Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D) for community outreach, was Obama’s first nominee for the Colorado post. But she withdrew her nomination after coming under fire for reportedly asking employees of the Denver district attorney’s office to access a restricted government database in connection with the 2006 gubernatorial campaign.
- John Vaudreuil (Western District of Wisconsin): Assistant U.S. Attorney in the office since 1980 would succeed Erik C. Peterson, who stepped down as U.S. Attorney in June 2009. Obama tapped Vaudreuil on May 27. Read more about him here.
The committee has yet to schedule votes for another 12 would-be U.S. Attorneys. The panel has approved 60 of Obama’s U.S. Attorney nominees, 57 of whom have won Senate confirmation. There are 93 U.S. Attorney posts.
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Former interim U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin, now a Republican candidate for Congress in central Arkansas, told the Associated Press that he respects the Justice Department’s decision not to file charges in connection with the Bush administration’s firing of U.S. Attorneys.
Tim Griffin (Tim Griffin for Congress)
Justice Department officials said Wednesday that Assistant U.S. Attorney Nora Dannehy has concluded that no criminal charges are warranted in connection with the 2006 dismissals.
“There were a lot of political games being played and I think it could have been handled much better,” Griffin said in an interview with the AP. “I’m talking about jobs and spending and all of the things Arkansans I talk with are interested in. If other people want to talk about it, that’s fine. That’s their right… As far as this story goes, I think it speaks for itself.”
Griffin had replaced former U.S. Attorney for Eastern Arkansas Bud Cummins, who was forced out by the Bush administration. At the time of his appointment, Griffin was an aide to Karl Rove.
Sarah Palin had singled out Griffin as one of the “good candidates” running in Arkansas this year.
The probe did not focused on Griffin’s hiring, instead centering on the firing of New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias. Dannehy also was tasked with determining whether White House or DOJ officials made false statements to Congress or to the Justice Department’s Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility, which also investigated the dismissals.
Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) (photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice)
Ahead of an FBI oversight hearing next week, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is asking FBI Director Robert Mueller for more information on the bureau’s latest attempt to modernize its computer system.
In a letter to Mueller dated Wednesday, Grassley wrote that the Sentinel project, which he called “little more than a fancy personnel management system,” appeared to be on the brink of failure.
The program would move the FBI’s criminal investigative records from paper to a computerized process. A stop-work order had been placed on both phases 3 and 4 of the Sentinel contract with Lockheed Martin.
“The FBI has been trying to get its computer system up to speed for a decade. It appears that the third iteration of a modern FBI computer system is about to fail,” Grassley wrote. “Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on a system that is little more than a fancy personnel management system. Taxpayers deserve an answer about the continued failure of the FBI and where the hundreds of millions of dollars went.”
FBI Director Robert Mueller (photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice).
FBI spokesman Christopher Allen said the partial stop-work order, issued on March 3, is not a complete shutdown of the Sentinel program. The order had been expanded to include the remainder of Phase 3, which would allow the contractor to focus on deploying Phase 2 by the fall of 2010, he said.
“Based on the delays associated with the completion of Phase 2, the FBI is assessing the current state of Sentinel and will engage industry subject matter experts in the evaluation of its strategy going forward,” Allen said in a statement. “This action is consistent with the phased contract approach that the FBI has used to develop its case management system. By design, the multi-phase contract allows the suspension of activities when the government believes it is in its best interest to do so.”
Allen said that the completion of phase 2 of the project would “provide new or enhanced capabilities including the creation of case documents online; the efficient flow of those documents electronically through submission, collaboration, vetting, and approval; the capability to search across all case-related information; and an easy-to-use interface.”
A March report (PDF) from the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General found that the cost of the Sentinel program was rising, the completion had been delayed several times and that the FBI did not have a schedule or cost estimate for the completion of the project.
Mueller said in April that delays in a massive overhaul of the bureau’s case management system were routine and he assured senators that the $305 million project would not become a boondoggle.
The full text of Grassley’s letter is reprinted below.
July 21, 2010
Via Electronic Communication
The Honorable Robert S. Mueller, III
Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20535Dear Director Mueller:
On March 17, 2010, I wrote to you regarding the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) new investigative case management system known as Sentinel. That letter discussed the progress of Sentinel and the fact that the FBI had issued a stop-work order to the project’s primary contractor, Lockheed Martin Services, Inc. (“Lockheed”) to cease work on Phases 3 and 4 of Sentinel. This stop-work order was verified at a March 25, 2010, staff briefing held by the FBI and Lockheed and was further detailed in a reply dated March 31, 2010. In that letter, the FBI confirmed that it had issued a partial stop-work order and that, “Negotiations with [the] prime contractor, Lockheed Martin, are underway to adjust the project’s cost and schedule to reflect these actions.”
Recently, it was reported that the FBI has issued another stop-work order to Lockheed halting work on Phases 3 and 4 of Sentinel. This stop-work order raises serious questions about the future role Lockheed will play as the primary contractor for Sentinel and may indicate that the negotiations on cost and schedule detailed in March were not successful. I write today regarding this development and request information about the status of negotiations with Lockheed and any changes to the schedule and cost for Sentinel.
On March 25, 2010, my staff met with representatives of the FBI to discuss my serious concerns with the potential delays in completing Sentinel. Specifically, I asked my staff to inquire about the timing for the completion of Sentinel and whether the FBI and Lockheed would be able to complete the project within the budget Congress authorized. Despite these serious questions, the briefing provided few concrete answers as to when Sentinel would be completed and how much the FBI anticipated the final project to cost. These same concerns were raised by the Inspector General for the Department of Justice (DOJ/OIG) in an interim report on the status of the FBI’s implementation of Sentinel issued on March 31, 2010.
The DOJ/OIG’s report stated that he had, “serious concerns about the progress of the FBI’s Sentinel project.” The DOJ/OIG further found that, “the FBI has had difficulty establishing and maintaining a strict cost and schedule for the Sentinel project.” The DOJ/OIG added, “As of March 2010, the FBI does not have official cost or schedule estimates for completing Sentinel.” Most notable, the DOJ/OIG stated, “While the FBI does not yet have official estimates, FBI officials have acknowledge that the project will cost more than its revised estimate of $451 million and will likely not be completed until 2011.” I share these same concerns and question whether this latest development in extending the stop-work order is an indication that Sentinel is on track to join Virtual Case File in the list of failed IT procurements at the FBI.
Accordingly, I ask that you provide responses to the following requests for information and questions in advance of the Senate Judiciary Committee FBI Oversight hearing scheduled for July 28, 2010.
(1) Provide a copy of the latest contract modification that includes the stop-work order for Phase 3 and Phase 4.
(2) Provide a copy of all updated cost estimates and projections provided by Lockheed to the FBI as part of the negotiations to continue work on Phase 3 and Phase 4 of Sentinel following the March 2010 stop-work order.
(3) Provide a copy of all updated timelines related to the completion of Sentinel following the issuance of the stop-work order from March 2010.
(4) Provide a copy of any counter-offer from the FBI to Lockheed related the cost estimate for completing Sentinel.
(5) Provide a list of all performance bonuses paid to Lockheed over the course of the Sentinel program. This list should include the date of the bonus, the amount of the bonus, and the reason the bonus was paid.
(6) Does Lockheed have a financial interest or relationship with any COTS vendors utilized on the Sentinel project?
(7) Provide a complete list of all instances where the FBI issued a modification to the contract, changes the requirements of the contract, or issued a change order.
(8) Provide a copy of the original contract consisting of NIH’s CIO-SP2i contract, the FBI Sentinel TORP C-2428 which includes all attachments (e.g., Statement of Work, Lockheed version 3.0, EVMS requirements, DD-254, etc), all three attachments, and the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that was executed on March 9, 2006 between the FBI and Lockheed.
(9) Provide a copy of all contract modifications issued from inception of the contract through the most recent stop-work order.
(10) Provide copies of all documentation that identifies written notifications of non-conforming products or services rejected, and other unsatisfactory contract performance from inception through the most recent contract stop work order.
(11) Provide copies of all Monthly Program Status Reports.
(12) Provide copies of documentation regarding any and all Contracting Officers Conferences from contract inception through the most recent stop work order.
(13) Provide copies of all SF 1034s (Public Voucher for Purchases and Services Other Than Personal) prepared and submitted from contract inception through the most recent stop work order.
Given the current fiscal constraints on the federal budget, it is imperative that every taxpayer dollar is spent as effectively and efficiently as possible. The FBI has spent nearly a decade trying to develop this computer system and the net cost of the current and failed projects is well over half a billion dollars. Congress and the American people deserve a complete accounting of what is happening with Sentinel before any future taxpayer dollars should even be considered for this project. I appreciate your prompt attention to this matter and look forward to your complete and full response in advance of the July 28, 2010, hearing so that we can discuss this in an informed manner during the public setting.
Sincerely,
Charles E. Grassley
United States Senator
Attorney General Eric Holder speaks next to a sign language interpreter at an event commemorating the 15 anniversary of the American Association of People with Disabilities. (photo by Channing Turner / Main Justice)
The Justice Department will soon be seeking comment on four proposed rules to establish accessibility requirements for websites, movies, equipment and furniture, and 911 call-taking technologies, Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday at an event commemorating the 15th anniversary of the American Association of People with Disabilities.
Holder spoke as part of the Justice Department’s week honoring the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, known as the ADA. He pledged “aggressive and appropriate” enforcement of the landmark disabilities law — both in communities and the department itself.
“Over the last two decades, the ADA has helped to revolutionize the conditions of and societal perceptions towards Americans with disabilities,” Holder said. “The AAPA leadership, membership and network of supporters have been essential to fulfilling the roles the ADA was developed to achieve.”
The American Association of People with Disabilities has advocated for the disabled community since its inception in 1995. Its annual “Justice for All” event recognizes disability advocates, which this year included Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I).
Former Attorney General and ADA advocate Richard Thornburgh also attended the event.
Technological innovations and social changes over the last two decades have changed the way the ADA is enforced, Holder said, in announcing the DOJ’s intention to issue the four new rules.
The Justice Department periodically reviews enforcement of the ADA. Rules proposed for public comment by the Bush administration in the summer of 2008 were put on hold when the Obama administration first came into office and paused all rule-making government-wide.
Justice Department spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa declined to comment further on the regulations.
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Thomas Perez has said the DOJ believes that Title III of the ADA applies to websites, and the Justice Department would issue regulations to help companies comply with their obligations.
Perez said in April that technology “made communicating, obtaining information, entertainment, education and goods easier and more efficient. But many of these technologies, from Web sites to cell phones, from ticket kiosks to TV set-top devices, are either in whole or in part inaccessible to persons who are blind and other people with disabilities.”
“Companies that do not consider accessibility in their website or product development will come to regret that decision, because we intend to use every tool at our disposal to ensure that people with disabilities have equal access to technology and the worlds that technology opens up,” Perez said.
Echoing recent remarks from Perez, Holder also pledged aggressive enforcement of the Supreme Court’s decision in Olmstead v. L.C. — a 1999 decision recognizing the right for individuals with disabilities to live in their communities.
He emphasized the administration’s work with voter-rights agencies to ensure the National Voting Rights Act’s anti-discriminatory mandate includes voter registration services for people with disabilities.
“At its core, the ADA is about ensuring that all Americans can participate fully in our democracy,” he said. “That is why this administration is committed to protecting the fundamental voting rights of Americans with disabilities.”
Despite the department’s insistence on enforcement, Holder said he hopes states and localities will move toward incorporating ADA compliance themselves, without the threat of lawsuits. To achieve this, he highlighted the need for ADA education and outreach — the goal of the department’s Project Civic Access and Technical Assistance Program.
“[Efforts] extend far beyond lawsuits and settlements,” Holder said. “Acceptability and opportunity are best delivered voluntarily and cooperatively … When the ADA is well understood, its provisions are well executed. “
Holder said the department, through efforts by the Attorney General’s Committee on the Employment of Persons with Disabilities, is working to recruit and retain disabled individuals. He also announced a new position, Special Assistant for Disabilities, under Deputy Associate Attorney General for Diversity Management, Channing Phillips.
“Although we are not yet where we want to be on this front, the Justice Department is taking bold steps to ensure that we get there,” he said.
Additional reporting by Ryan J. Reilly.
Attorney General Eric Holder may be a fan of the Justice Department’s prisoner reentry programs, but an audit released Wednesday by the DOJ’s Inspector General found the department is doing a poor job monitoring the effectiveness of programs aimed at reducing recidivism.
According to the report, the Inspector General’s office could not determine if Office of Justice Program grants were successful in reducing recidivism rates because the office does not effectively track how the programs that receive grants spend their funds.
The report included an audit of 10 grant programs worth $17.9 million from January 2005 through November 2009 which questioned how $5.2 million of that money was spent. The Inspector General found in the overall report, which covered three separate grant programs spanning from fiscal year 2002 through January 2010, that in many cases there was little documentation showing the office followed up with grantees after awarding them with funding.
More than 50 percent of those released from prison will be in legal trouble again within three years, according to OJP. The grant programs provide services to high-risk offenders — such as substance abuse prevention and employment and training assistance — in the hopes of reducing the rate of recidivism.
The Inspector General found that the office had not established an effective system to assess whether offender reentry programs were meeting their goals and called on OJP to improve the management and oversight of the programs.
The audit recommend 11 changes to OJP’s grant process, including establishing baseline recidivism data, developing a program to analyze the performance of programs, and identifying best practices.
Justice Department officials said in a statement that they already had taken steps to address many of the issues raised in the audit.
OJP officials said the office will implement a new system, called the performance measurement tool, to collect data on reentry grant programs. The new system would be in place by Oct. 1.
They said the findings would inform the implementation of the Second Chance Act Offender Reentry Initiative, which is a top priority for the administration.
The full report from the Office of the Inspector General is embedded below.
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Nora Dannehy was named by then-U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey to investigate the U.S. Attorney firings. (Getty Images)
Justice Department officials said Wednesday that Assistant U.S. Attorney Nora Dannehy has concluded that no criminal charges are warranted in connection with the Bush administration’s firings of U.S. Attorneys in 2006.
Attorney General Michael Mukasey appointed Dannehy, then-acting U.S. Attorney of Connecticut, in September 2008 as a special prosecutor to look into the firings, particularly that of former New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias.
Dannehy also was tasked with determining whether White House or DOJ officials made false statements to Congress or to the Justice Department’s Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility, which also investigated the dismissals.
Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legislative Affairs Ronald Weich disclosed Dannehy’s findings in a letter to House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) dated Wednesday.
“Evidence did not demonstrate that any prosecutable criminal offense was committed with regard to the removal of David Iglesias,” Weich wrote in the letter. “The investigative team also determined that the evidence did not warrant expanding the scope of the investigation beyond the removal of Iglesias.”
Justice Department officials said Wednesday that the probe is now closed. The inquiry focused on Iglesias and the findings outlined in the letter related to the investigation of his dismissal, they said. No wider investigation was determined to be necessary.
According to Weich, Dannehy and her investigative team concluded that DOJ leadership never made a determination as to whether complaints about Iglesias were legitimate.
“While the actions of DOJ leadership were contrary to DOJ principles, they were not intended to and did not influence or in any way impede voter fraud prosecutions or a particular public corruption case,” Weich said.
The investigation also found that there was insufficient evidence to establish that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Kyle Sampson, the Attorney General’s Chief of Staff, “knowingly made material false statements to OIG/OPR or Congress or corruptly endeavored to obstruct justice.”
Reached by Main Justice Wednesday, Gonzales said he had not yet reviewed the letter, but had heard the result of the investigation. He declined to comment until he had an opportunity to review the letter himself.
In an interview with Main Justice last month, Gonzales said he hoped the investigation would wrap up soon. He also said he needed to raise additional money to cover his legal bills related to the matter.
“We need to do a better effort raising additional money, and so we’re going to try to do that as soon as the last investigation [ends],” said Gonzales. “That investigation has been out there going on forever. I’m not sure what’s going on there, but we’re waiting for that to be completed. And once that’s completed — I have confidence that again [there was] no wrong-doing by me — that will again raise some interest in raising additional money.”
UPDATE:
Conyers said in a statement that it was clear that Dannehy’s decision not to bring criminal charges “is not an exoneration of Bush officials in the U.S. Attorney matter as there is no dispute that these firings were totally improper and that misleading testimony was given to Congress in an effort to cover them up.”
He also pointed out that the probe “did not conclude that administration officials testified truthfully to Congress,” only that there was insufficient evidence to show they knowingly made false statement.
“I appreciate Attorney General Holder’s commitment to ensure that such conduct will not happen again,” Conyers said. “I am proud of the committee’s effort to bring the facts of this controversy to light, so that the American people themselves can judge the how Bush Justice Department abused our trust.”
UPDATE:
Gonzales’ lawyer, former Deputy Attorney General George J. Terwilliger III, said the Justice Department’s conclusion was long overdue.
“Those who made unwarranted allegations to the contrary owe him an apology,” said Terwilliger, a partner with White & Case LLP. “After having spent months cooperating with inquiries that produced no evidence of his wrongdoing, Judge Gonzales is pleased to be free to resume a career marked to date by service to the public.”
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The Virginia man who threatened the creators of South Park after they featured the Prophet Mohammed in an episode was charged Wednesday with providing material support to a Somalian terrorist group.
Zachary Adam Chesser, 20, is accused of trying to travel to Somalia to join Al-Shabaab, a designated terrorist organization, as a foreign fighter. He also allegedly maintained several online profiles dedicated to extremist jihad propaganda, which he used to post pro-jihad messages and videos online.
In April, Chesser — who also goes by the name Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee — posted on the radical Islamist website RevolutionMuslim.com that the creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, would “probably end up” like Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh.
Van Gogh was murdered in Amsterdam in 2004 by an alleged extremist for a film he created that was critical of Islam.
After the statement about the South Park creators was publicized, Chesser told Fox News that his words were not intended as a threat but rather a warning of what was likely to happen.
The affidavit only briefly mentions the South Park incident, noting that Chesser was no longer on speaking terms with his parents because they received death threats after his statement was publicized.
According to the affidavit, Chesser was in contact with American-born, al-Qaeda propagandist Anwar al-Awlaki, who inspired him to pursue jihad. In July 2010, Chesser bought an airline ticket to fly to Uganda. He was picked up at the airport by the FBI and admitted under questioning that he intended to travel from Uganda to Somalia in order to join the terrorist group.
“This case exposes the disturbing reality that extreme radicalization can happen anywhere, including Northern Virginia,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Neil MacBride said in a statement. “This young man is accused of seeking to join Al-Shabaab, a brutal terrorist organization with ties to Al-Qa’ida. These allegations underscore the need for continued vigilance against homegrown terror threats.”
Agents from the FBI’s Washington Field Office investigation the case, which is being prosecuted by Eastern District Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg and Trial Attorney John T. Gibbs of the Counterterrorism Section in the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
Chesser is expected to appear in court in Alexandria, Va., Thursday.
Additional reporting by Ryan J. Reilly.
