Zachary Adam Chesser
American man who aided Al-Shabaab, a terrorist organization
Zachary Adam Chesser (born December 22, 1989) is an American convicted in 2010 for aiding al-Shabaab, a Somalia-based terrorist group aligned with al-Qaeda, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. On February 24, 2011, after pleading guilty, Chesser was sentenced in federal court to 25 years in prison. He is also known for his threats to South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone for their depictions of Muhammad in an episode of that series.
Early life and education
Chesser was born on December 22, 1989, in Charlottesville, Virginia, to Barbara Katenbrink Chesser, a lawyer and prosecutor, and David Chesser. His parents divorced, and Chesser moved to Fairfax County, Virginia by the time he was in middle school.
He was attending Kilmer Middle School in Vienna, Virginia, where he was selected for the gifted and talented program. He then attended Oakton High School, where he participated on the school's football, basketball and crew teams. In eleventh grade, he began break-dancing with a group of Korean American students. He graduated in 2008. His yearbook profile said, "As the only Caucasian member of the break-dancing club, senior Chesser was not intimidated by being the only non-Asian."
After high school, in 2008, Chesser enrolled at George Mason University in Fairfax County, Virginia, and dropped out after one semester.
“Zachary Adam Chesser” enters the record as american man who aided Al-Shabaab, a terrorist organization. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Zachary, Adam and Chesser can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8063934. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1989, 2010, 2011 and 2008.
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This entry incorporates text from “Zachary Adam Chesser” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.