Two Stories of Terrorism from NoVA

There are two stories about terrorist connections in Fairfax County in a month. One involves Yahyah Wehelie from Burke, who was in Yemen studying computers, and couldn’t get home because his name ended up on a watch list. As far as anyone can tell, Mr. Wehelie found himself in the same room as some Interesting™ people, and that resulted in a two-month unintentional stay in Egypt. The other involves Zachary Chesser of Fairfax, who was arrested yesterday on charges of providing material support to the al-Shabaab terrorist group in Somalia. One innocent Somali-American prevented from coming home, one suspected white kid from the burbs under arrest for helping terrorists, all from the same county.

The facts in these cases aren’t available to the public, they’re a classified part of the intelligence community’s war chest, which makes it all that much harder to evaluate and see what exactly is happening.

I live and work in the District of Columbia. I write at We Love DC, a blog I helped start, I work at Technolutionary, a company I helped start, and I’m happy doing both. I enjoy watching baseball, cooking, and gardening. I grow a mean pepper, keep a clean scorebook, and wash the dishes when I’m done. Read Why I Love DC.

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3 thoughts on “Two Stories of Terrorism from NoVA”

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  2. I know a fair bit about the Wehelie story. He is very much innocent and back to a semblance of a normal life in Northern Virginia. Wehelie got off an airplane in NYC and is a free man. No charges filed, no monitoring and no detention at all since he’s been in the US since last Saturday.

    I understand that the authorities are trying to do a good job, but preventing an American citizen (born in Fairfax, VA) from coming back for so long is very much alarming for those who thing they have a right to due process. Sad state of affairs for US citizens and bad publicity for the US Gov’t overseas.