He Asked a 9/11 Plotter About Flight Lessons. What Now?

Twenty-five year old Arkeuntrez Washington was recently released from federal prison for arms trafficking. His re-entry comes with a lot of supervision including tracking his activity online, in part because when he was arrested, authorities found evidence that he wrote a letter to an imprisoned 9/11 plotter. 

VICE News’ Keegan Hamilton spends time with Washington, to figure out how he fits into the bigger picture of extremism and deradicalization, trying to answer the questions: What should happen to you if you’re fascinated by terrorists, curious about them to the point that you even reach out to them, but have never commited a single act of terror? And what’s the appropriate punishment for that and how do we decide what happens after?

This episode was reported by Keegan Hamilton. It was produced by Sayre Quevedo and edited by Adizah Eghan. 

VICE News Reports is hosted by Arielle Duhaime-Ross and produced by Sophie Kazis, Jen Kinney, and Sayre Quevedo. Our senior producers are Ashley Cleek, Adizah Eghan, and Sam Greenspan. Our associate producers are Steph Brown, Sam Eagan, and Adreanna Rodriguez. Sound design and music composition by Steve Bone, Pran Bandi, Natasha Jacobs and Kyle Murdock. 

Our executive producer and VP of Vice Audio is Kate Osborn. Janet Lee is Senior Production Manager for VICE Audio. 

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