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Introducing Adam Gadahn

Discussion in 'Political Debate & Discussion' started by carpro, Jun 2, 2007.

  1. carpro

    carpro Well-Known Member
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    http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=239727


    American Al Qaeda Unmasked?
    Californian Thought to Be 'Azzam the American'


    By BRIAN ROSS
    and DAVID SCOTT
    NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2004--
    Font Size



    U.S. officials believe with a high degree of confidence that missing Southern Californian Adam Gadahn is the self-described American al Qaeda who threatened to kill thousands of his countrymen in a videotape obtained and broadcast by ABC News two weeks ago.

    "No, my fellow countrymen you are guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty," the man identified only as "Azzam the American" said. "After decades of American tyranny and oppression, now it's your turn to die. Allah willing, the streets of America will run red with blood matching drop for drop the blood of America's victims."

    A senior U.S. official says officials concluded that Azzam the American was Gadahn after speaking to his family in Southern California, showing the tape to captured al Qaeda operatives and conducting weeks of technical analysis. Although all indications are of a positive match, officials do caution that there is a small margin of error in the analysis and they cannot be absolutely certain of the speaker's identity.

    Among other steps, intelligence officials compared the voice of Azzam to footage of a teenage Gadahn discussing environmental projects nearly 10 years ago on a cable television segment in California. Gadahn, who would now be 26, is wanted for questioning by the FBI in connection with possible terrorist threats against the United States.

    FBI Director Robert Mueller said in a May press conference that Gadahn was associated with al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah in Pakistan, and that he attended terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.



    http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/01/22/070122fa_fact_khatchadourian

    Azzam the American
    The making of an Al Qaeda homegrown.

    by Raffi Khatchadourian January 22, 2007


    In “An Invitation to Islam,” a 2006 Al Qaeda video, Gadahn betrays the zealotry of a youthful convert.


    Adam Gadahn, the first American to be charged with treason in more than fifty years, was born in Oregon, grew up in rural California, and converted to Islam at the age of seventeen. He is now twenty-eight. No one who knew him before his religious awakening ever thought that he would join Al Qaeda, and many people who knew him after he did are still perplexed. And yet, in a short time, Gadahn has become one of Osama bin Laden’s senior operatives. (He is believed to be hiding in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan.) He is a member of Al Qaeda’s “media committee,” and his responsibilities are thought to include those of translator, video producer, and cultural interpreter. Primarily, though, Gadahn is a spokesperson, a role he performs with tremendous conviction. He has addressed the United States in five videos, most of which reach a wide audience on the Internet and, in some form or another, have been discussed on the evening news. Last year, shortly before the fifth anniversary of September 11th, Al Qaeda’s leadership featured Gadahn in a video titled “An Invitation to Islam.” The video began with an introduction from Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda’s main theoretician, who referred to Gadahn tenderly as a brother and as “a perceptive person who wants to lead his people out of darkness into the light.” Zawahiri implored his Western audience to listen to Gadahn, even to follow his example. Al Qaeda had never before given one of its members, let alone an American, an endorsement so intimate and direct.
     
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