Last Thursday, July 22, 20-year-old Zachary A. Chesser of Fairfax County, Va., was arrested for providing material support to, and attempting to join, the Somali Islamist militia affiliated with al Qaeda, al-Shabab. Chesser has been ordered to remain in jail until his trial.

Chesser was the subject of a feature profile in this Sunday’s Washington Post, bylined by the newspaper’s staff writer Tara Bahrampour. Chesser, who became Muslim at Oakton High School, adopted the Wahhabi interpretation of the religion–that of the official, fundamentalist sect in Saudi Arabia. He first came to public attention in April, posting on a jihadist website called “Revolution Muslim” what he called a prediction (“It’s not a threat, but it really is a likely outcome”) that the cartoonists who created South Park would be assassinated like Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, for airing an episode that portrayed Muhammad dressed up in a bear suit.