GW fellow/former terrorist arrested for solicitation, drugs

Jesse Morton, a former al Qaeda recruiter turned FBI informant turned fellow at The George Washington University, has been arrested for possession of cocaine while attempting to meet a prostitute.

According to The Washington Post, Jesse Morton was arrested on December 28 as part of a Fairfax, Virginia police sting operation after responding to an ad for a prostitute on backpage.com. Upon his arrest, police found cocaine and a glass pipe in his vehicle.

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Morton was the center of controversy after it was announced in the fall that he would be hired as a Homeland Security expert at The George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, conducting research on terrorist ideology.

At one time as a recruiter for al Qaeda, he ran the website Revolution Muslim and was even sentenced to 11.5 years in prison for threatening South Park writers after depicting the Prophet Mohammad in a bear suit. Morton also praised Nidal Hasan for his attack on the Fort Hood military base, killing 13 people.

Morton only served 3 of those years in prison, becoming an FBI informant and devoting himself to the study of extremism as a way to, as he put it, “make amends” for his past.

Sean Hughes, the director of GW’s Program on Extremism, told CNN that he was sure Morton was completely reformed from his past ties to al Qaeda, and that “we haven't figured out how to reach that individual who's going down the path of radicalization...Jesse has been in that world and got out of that world.”

A GW spokesperson confirmed that Morton is no longer working as a research fellow at the university.

Morton is due in court next week, and it is possible that he may return to prison.

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