Zachary Adam Chesser, who threatened "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone over an episode of the Comedy Central show featuring Muhammad in a bear suit, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with supporting a terrorist group linked to Al-Qaeda.
The charges were unrelated to the "South Park" threats, though it does appear those comments put Chesser on the FBI's radar.
According to an affadivit filed in the U.S. Southern District Court of Eastern Virginia, Chesser told the FBI he provided material support to the terrorist group, Al-Shabbab, and twice tried to travel — unsucessfully — to Somalia to join them. (Chesser was arrested on July 10 trying to board a flight to Uganda with his infant son.)
Federal officials also noted the 20-year-old Chesser's YouTube account was used to spread the group's propaganda.
In an April post on RevolutionMuslim.com, Chesser warned that Parker and Stone would "probably end up" like Theo Van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker who was killed over his film critical of Islamic treatment of women.
