THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2010


KLMNO


EZ SU POLITICS & THE NATION DIGEST DEMOGRAPHICS


Teenmotherhood highest in South The rate atwhich teenagers are


having babies varies significantly fromstate to state, according to a newfederal report. Generally, the rates are highest


in states across the South and lowest intheNortheast andupper Midwest. The rate also varied sharply by race. Arkansas ledthenationin2008


with 61.8 births per 1,000 girls ages 15 to 19, according to the report by the National Center for Health Statistics.NewHampshire hadthe lowest teenbirthrate, 19.8 per 1,000. The rates were 33.5 in Virginia, 32.8 in Maryland and 50.9 intheDistrict. In 2007, the year for which the


center had the most up-to-date breakdownsby race, thebirthrate among Hispanic teens was 81.8 per 1,000, which is nearly triple the rate for white teens. Among blacks, the ratewas 64.2. But the rate varied widely


among states by race. For example, it ranged from4.3


among white teens in the District to54.8amongwhites inMississip- pi. Among blacks, it ranged from 17.4inHawaii to95.1 inWisconsin. ForHispanics, it ranged from31.1 inMaine to 188.3 inAlabama. Thenational teenbirthratehas


been closely watched since rising from 2005 to 2007, following a decades-longdecline.


—Rob Stein CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES


Awoman signs a giant banner printed with the Preamble to the Constitution as demonstrators gathered at the LincolnMemorial to protest the Supreme Court’s CitizensUnited campaign finance ruling. Two organizers walked across the country to call attention to their cause.


NEWJERSEY


Man convicted of raping daughter A New Jersey man accused of


sexually assaulting five of his daughterswas convictedWednes- day of raping and impregnating one of them. Jurors heard extremely graphic


testimony from the man’s former wife and a daughter, who says he raped her until she bore him a child.Thewomentestified thathe


said he wanted to create “pure” family bloodlines. TheWashington Post is not re-


porting theman’s name to protect the identities ofhis children. —AssociatedPress


Flight attendant’s house burglar- ized: While JetBlue flight atten- dant Steven Slater appeared in court Tuesday to plead guilty to attempted criminal mischief, his boyfriend’s brother burglarized theirhouse, taking a laptop,print- er and microwave, Queens, N.Y.,


District Attorney Richard Brown said Wednesday. Jonathan Ro- chelle, 39, was charged with sec- ond-degree burglary.


Former centerfold charged in shooting: The 1968 Playboy Play- mate of the Year has been charged with attempted murder after she allegedly shot her husband of 20 yearsduringadispute,authorities said Wednesday. Victoria Rath- geb, 66, appeared in Playboy un- der thename ofAngelaDorian. —Fromnews services


Va. man pleads guilty to aiding Somali terrorists


GMU dropout and propagandist faces up to 30-year prison term


BY SPENCER S. HSU A Northern Virginia man


pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to charges of support- ing Somali terrorists and threat- ening the creators of TV’s “South Park” over their depiction of the prophetMuhammad. Zachary Adam Chesser, 20, of


Bristow, pleaded guilty in Alexan- dria to charges of providingmate- rial support to terrorists,commu- nicating threats and soliciting crimes of violence. U.S. District JudgeLiamO’Gra-


dy set a sentencing hearing for Feb. 25. The three charges carry a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. In an agreement with prosecu-


tors, Chesser would request no less than 20 years in prison. The terms do not limit what the gov- ernment may seek or what a judge would impose, depending on Chesser’s cooperation. The plea, which Chesser can-


not appeal or withdraw, brings an end to the saga of a suburban Washington man whom friends


described as “freakishly intelli- gent” and whom the FBI deemed a prolific Internet propagandist for al-Qaeda. Together with his wife, the Oakton High School graduate adopted pseudonyms anddeluged al-Qaeda forumsand mainstream chat sites with com- ments, videos and texts. Terrorism analysts said Chess-


er e-mailed Anwar al-Aulaqi, a U.S.-bornMuslim cleric who now lives in Yemen and has been accused of helping direct the Dec. 25 bombing attempt of a Detroit- bound airliner. And Chesser styled himself after Omar Ham- mami, a Mobile, Ala., man who has become a top Somali insur- gent commander. However, his efforts to become


another American spokesman for al-Qaeda-linked groups have “had no enduring impact,” said Jarret Brachman, a counterter- rorism analyst at North Dakota State University who monitors jihadiWeb sites. “He was on the right track to


become something of an influen- tial player, but he hadn’t arrived yet,” Brachman said. “He clearly was innovating . . . but, that said, he’s just a blip.” In a statement, Neil H.


MacBride, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said


Chesser’s threats will leave inno- cent people at risk for years to come. “His solicitation of extremists


to murder U.S. citizens also caused people throughout the country to fear speaking out — even in jest — lest they also be labeled as enemies who deserved to be killed,”MacBride said. Michael Nachmanoff, Chess-


er’s attorney, said his client’s ac- tions were very different from those of high-profile terrorism suspects such as alleged Fort Hood gunman Army Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, and Faisal Shahzad, who has confessed to attempting to set off a carbombinNewYork’s Times Square. “Mr. Chesser has renounced


violent jihad. He has accepted responsibility and he is deeply remorseful,” Nachmanoff said. “He is ayoungmanwhohas taken some very important steps to putting his life back together.” A George Mason University


dropout known online as Abu Talhah al-Amrikee, Chesser was arrested July 21, days after he was blocked from traveling with his infant son from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport toUganda, en route to Somalia. Chesser admitted he had planned to join the Islamist in-


surgent group al-Shabab, which the U.S. government lists as a terrorist organization, in its bid to overthrow the weak, U.N.-sup- ported Somali government. He also admitted making


threats from April to July over the Internet to “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, say- ing they would “wind up like Theo Van Gogh.” The reference wasto a Dutch filmmakergunned down in 2004 after he attacked the treatment ofwomenin Islam- ic society. Chesser said his targets includ-


ed a Florida man, identified as “JG,” who participated in an “Ev- erybody Draw Muhammad Day” group on Facebook. Prosecutors agreed to charge


Proscovia Kampire Nzabanita, Chesser’s wife, with making false statements, which carries a maxi- mum five-year prison term, and not with aiding and abetting his offenses. The government also agreed


not to seek Chesser’s incarcera- tion in a so-called federal super- max facility, such as the Colorado prison where terrorist convicts are held in isolation and confined 23 hours a day.


hsus@washpost.com


Staff writer Tara Bahrampour contributed to this report.


Temporary reprieve for ‘don’t ask’ policy


PENTAGON CAN ENFORCE BAN


Three-judge panel to consider appeal


BY ED O’KEEFE The Obama administration


won a temporary stay against the moratorium on “don’t ask, don’t tell” Wednesday, granting the Pentagon the right to once again enforce the 17-year-old banongay men and women serving openly in the military. A three-judge panel of the U.S.


Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit issued the decision, giving itself time to consider the Justice Department’s appeal of last week’s injunction by U.S. District Judge Virginia A. Phillips. Wednesday’s stay was the lat-


est volley in an issue ping-pong- ing its way through the courts. The Log Cabin Republicans


(LCR), a pro-gay group that brought the suit challenging the constitutionality of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” have until Monday to appeal the 9th Circuit decision. “While we are disappointed


with the court’s ruling granting a temporary administrative stay,we viewthe decision as nothingmore than a minor setback,” said Dan Woods, the lawyer representing LCR. “We didn’t come this far to quit now, andwe expect that once the 9th Circuit has received and considered full briefing on the government’s application for a stay, itwill deny that application.” This “is not a decision on the


merits; it’s an even more tempo- rary decision,” said Richard So- carides, a former adviser on gay rights to President Bill Clinton who is tracking the issue closely. “For the reasons stated in the


government’s submission, we be- lieve a stay is appropriate,” Penta- gon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said. It will be issuing additional guidance regarding the decision, she said. The Justice Department had no immediate comment, ac- cording to a spokeswoman. The military is back to where it


was before Phillips caught it by surprise with her Oct. 12 injunc- tion. Since then, thePentagon has instructed military recruiters to accept openly gay applicants, though few have been known to apply, according to gay rights groups. As for any gay men or lesbians


whoenlisted this week, “theymay be told they cannot join” if the Pentagon decides to enforce the law, said Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a group representing service members af- fected by the law. But the military’s decision to follow Phillips’s order proves it is


ready to accept gay service mem- bers, said Aaron Belkin, executive director of the Palm Center at the University of California at Santa Barbara. The think tank studies gays in the military and supports lifting the “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban. “Look what happened last


week: The military suspended [the ban] with no training, and guess what? Nothing happened,” Belkin said. Elaine Donnelly, executive di-


rector of the Center for Military Readiness, which opposes ending the law, disagreed, saying that allowing recruiters to accept gay and lesbian recruits created con- fusion. “Why would they tell recruiters


that they should do something that has never been done in the history of theU.S. military?” Don- nelly said. “There is no excuse for that, other than the president’s political agenda.” Indeed, the Obama adminis-


tration, which is seeking a repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” finds itself in an awkward position. The president has stated his op- position to the policy and is pushing Congress to repeal it, but the Justice Department is gener- ally required to defend existing law. It asked the 9th Circuit to lift


Phillips’s injunction, stating that a moratorium jeopardizes an on- going reviewofhowthe Pentagon would end the ban. In court papers, the Justice


Department said Phillips’s in- junction “is at odds with basic principles of judicial restraint” because it blocks the Pentagon from enforcing the gay ban across the military and not just among members of the Log Cabin Re- publicans. But LCR dismissed the govern-


ment’s argument, saying the Pen- tagon “has already acted nimbly” in response to the injunction by ordering recruiters to accept gay applicants. “The fact that the government


can and did issue such instruc- tions and comply with the injunc- tion immediately shows that the military will not sustain irrepara- ble harm from compliance and belies the need for any temporary stay,” LCRargued in court papers. “We’re a little surprised that


they’re making the same old ar- gument again,” said LCR Execu- tive Director R. Clarke Cooper. “One has to wonder what the tack here is.” The Justice Department “can


onlymake the arguments that are politically consistent with the president’s policy positions,” So- carides said. “And there aren’t many of those arguments left.” Cooper and other gay rights


advocates once again cautioned gay men and lesbians to carefully consider discussing their sexuali- ty with recruiters because of the law’s uncertain future. ed.okeefe@washingtonpost.com


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