Thoughts on the Chesser Report

My thoughts on the Chesser Report are that I wonder how much of this story is actually true and whether Zachary Chesser isn’t rather an asset for the intelligence community. After all, his father was a US government contractor, and Chesser virtually grew up in the backyard of the intelligence community in Virginia. He attended George Mason for a semester and George Mason is heavily involved with the intelligence community. I find it hard to believe that a kid with this background would become radicalized by a teammate on a soccer club. Why would he even be on a club organized by an Islamic political activist if not for the purpose of infiltration? I find that scenario much more plausible than the one presented in the report. The intelligence community regularly engages in infiltration exercises and develops false narratives for purposes related to covert operations. COINTELPRO showed the extent to which intelligence agencies will infiltrate radical organizations in the US, without regard for Constitutional law. To imagine that sort of thing no longer goes on today would seem to me to be more than a bit naïve. This is why I would wonder whether Chesser is even still incarcerated. I am not saying this story is false—but I am skeptical and I think skepticism is justified, considering the lengths to which the intelligence community will go to engage in counter-intelligence.

However, not knowing anything about the case other than what is contained in the Chesser Report (Majority and Minority Staff Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, 2012), I would have to withhold judgment for now. I do believe there is a problem of homegrown terrorism in the US, but I do not believe that every instance of homegrown terrorism is authentic or that it occurs without the aid of our intelligence agencies.

References

Majority and Minority Staff Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. (2012). Zachary Chesser: A Case Study in Online Islamist Radicalization and Its Meaning for the Threat of Homegrown Terrorism.