Adam Gadahn, American al Qaeda Captured? Not…

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Pakistani intelligence agents say they have captured an American al-Qaida operative, but they have reversed their initial assertion that he is Adam Gadahn, who is wanted in the United States on a treason charge.

Pakistani officials said Monday the man they arrested recently in the southern port city of Karachi appears to be another American with the alias Abu Yahya Majadin al-Adam.

They said the similarity of the name with those sometimes used by Adam Gadahn initially caused some confusion.

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From the Wall Street Journal

Pakistan said it has arrested a Taliban leader, but there were conflicting reports about his identity and the role he played in the al Qaeda network.

Senior Pakistani official identified the detainee as Abu Yahya or Abu Yahaya.

Earlier, media reports quoted officials in Pakistan as saying the man was an American-born spokesman for al Qaeda, Adam Gadahn. But the senior Pakistani official said he didn’t believe Mr. Gadahn had been arrested.

A second senior Pakistani official also denied that any American national has been seized. “Adam Gadahn has not been captured,” he said.

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From ABC News

Adam Gadahn

A Taliban leader who goes by the name Abu Yahya, just like American-turned-al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn, was picked up in Karachi in recent days, but that person is not Gadahn, a senior Pakistani government official told ABC News.But there are conflicting reports about whether it is notorious Adam Gadahn.

Reports of the capture of an American-born al-Qaeda member by Pakistani authorities gave rise to speculation over whether it was Gadahn, the 31-year-old California-born Muslim convert who has been wanted since 2004.

The official told ABC News the leader who was arrested was possibly Abu Yahya Mujahdeen al-Adam, said to be another American member of al Qaeda, but the Pakistanis have yet to make that identification positive, the official said. Read Full Article

From DAWN News in India

An American Al Qaeda leader, Adam Yahiye Gadahn, was arrested in Karachi on Sunday, US and Pakistani diplomatic sources told journalists here.

Gadahn was likely detained in Sohrab Goth, a major Pashtun area in northern Karachi, which also has a large population of tribesmen from North and South Waziristan.

Also known as ‘Azzam the American’, Gadahn has long been on the US ‘Most Wanted List’. Officials in Washington described his capture as ‘a major victory’ in the war against Al Qaeda.

All major US media outlets, while reporting the arrest of Osama bin Laden’s spokesman, also credited DawnNews with breaking the news.

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From CBS News

Two Pakistani officers and a government official said Sunday that an American charged with treason for working with al Qaeda had been captured, a development that could deliver another significant blow in the U.S.-led battle against the terror network.

U.S. defense, intelligence and law enforcement officials could not immediately verify the reported detention of Adam Gadahn, a 31-year-old spokesman for al Qaeda who has appeared on videos threatening the West, including one that emerged earlier Sunday.

The reported arrest of Gadahn follows the recent detention of several Afghan Taliban commanders in Karachi, including the group’s No. 2. Those detentions have been seen as a sign that Pakistan, which has been criticized as an untrustworthy ally, was cooperating more fully with Washington.

Some observers were cautious about giving credence to the claim that Gadahn was in custody as reports emerged that the man arrested might instead be a Taliban militant leader. There was no way of independently verifying the arrest or identity, and detentions of terror suspects in Pakistan are often surrounded by conflicting reports.

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From Indian Express News

Pakistani security agents have arrested an American al Qaeda spokesman wanted in the United States for treason for threatening violence unless al Qaeda demands are met, Pakistani officials said on Sunday.

News of the arrest of Adam Gadahn, a California-born convert to Islam, came the day a video was released in which he called for Muslims in the United States to launch attacks to undermine the economy, according to a website monitoring al Qaeda announcements.

The capture of Gadahn, believed to be in his early 30s, is the latest in a series of militant arrests in US ally Pakistan that has raised hopes for more concerted action against the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda as U.S. forces battle militants over the border in Afghanistan.

“He was arrested in Karachi recently,” said a Pakistani security agent who declined to be identified.

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Adam Gadahn American al Qaeda In New Video

In a new anti-Israel, anti-U.S. video, an American al Qaeda member makes reference to his Jewish ancestry for the first time in an official al Qaeda message.

In the video, Adam Yahiye Gadahn, also known as Azzam the American, discusses his roots as he castigates U.S. policies and deplores Israel’s offensive in Gaza that started in late December 2008 and continued into January.

“Let me here tell you something about myself and my biography, in which there is a benefit and a lesson,” Gadahn says, as he elicits support from his fellow Muslims for “our weapons, funds and Jihad against the Jews and their allies everywhere.”

“Your speaker has Jews in his ancestry, the last of whom was his grandfather,” he says.

[...]

The video in which Gadahn speaks Arabic, with English subtitles — surfaced on Saturday. This account is based on an English transcript provided by As-Sahab Media, the media production company used by al Qaeda.

Gadahn’s Jewish ancestry has been reported in the news media. But terrorism analyst Laura Mansfield says it is the first time Gadahn acknowledged his Jewish ancestry in an official al Qaeda message.

Gadahn says his grandfather was a “Zionist” and “a zealous supporter of the usurper entity, and a prominent member of a number of Zionist hate organizations.”

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American Al-Qaeda Adam Gadahn Appears In New Video

An American Al-Qaeda member has urged followers to step up assistance to suicide bombers and other radical fighters, arguing that the West “has begun to stagger,” a group monitoring Al-Qaeda said.

Adam Gadahn, an American member of Al-Qaeda, made the appeal in a new video titled “How to Prevent a Repeat of the Gaza Holocaust,” which was released on jihadist forums on Sunday, after speculation that it would be released last week, according to SITE Intelligence Group.

[...]

In a reference to the economic crisis, Gadahn said that “the enemy, under the leadership of the unbelieving West, has begun to stagger and falter, and the results of his unabated bleeding have begun to show on his economies, which are on the brink of failure.”

He attributes the crisis to “the grace of Allah, and then, the huge sacrifices of your sons, the mujahideen, who are eager for you to stand by their side and reinforce them with money and men.”

Gadahn dismisses efforts by the administration of US President Barack Obama to mend fences with the Muslim world, arguing that nothing in the US approach has changed since the presidency of George W. Bush.

[...]

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American Al Qaeda In Somalia Hold Press Conference

Two young Americans who left their homes to join an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group in Somalia held a rare “press conference” in Southern Somalia on Monday, saying they want to be killed “for the sake of God,” according to a U.S. law enforcement official and a video posted on a Somali news Web site.

For several months the FBI has been investigating at least 20 Somali-American men from the Minneapolis area and elsewhere in the United States who traveled to war-torn Somalia to join the terrorist group al-Shabaab, which has been warring with the moderate Somali government since 2006.

Last month, a source familiar with the FBI investigation told FOX News that “several” of the men had returned to the United States, while others “are still there [in Somalia].” Today is the first time any of these men have spoken publicly.

“We came from the U.S. with a good life and a good education, but we came to fight alongside our brothers of al-Shabaab … to be killed for the sake of God,” one man said in the video, as translated by Omar Jamal, the executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, Minn.

In the video, two men, identifying themselves as Abu-Muslim and Abu Yaxye, say they are “Somali youth” from the United States who are now stationed near the city of Kismayo, more than 300 miles southwest of Mogadishu, according to Jamal. The men say they are talking to media for the first time so others can learn why they joined al-Shabaab, he said.

A spokesman from the FBI Field Office in Minneapolis, E.K. Wilson, said he is “aware of the video,” which was posted on the Web site dowladnimo.com. He said the video was first brought to his office’s attention early Sunday.

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Adam Gadahn ‘American al Qaeda’ Alive – as Sahab Video Released

Adam Gadahn,  the ‘American al Qaeda’ resurfaced in a new video released this morning by As Sahab. It was widely assumed, although never confirmed, that Gadahn had been killed several months ago.

The video, 32 minutes, 7 seconds long, is primarily focused on Pakistan. It makes specific references to Musharaff’s resignation and to Pakistan’s new President Asif Zardari. Read more

Adam Gadahn – Silence Points To Successful Strike By US Forces

Months of attacks by unmanned US predator aircraft have caused carnage among the middle ranks of terrorist leaders in the lawless lands along the border with Afghanistan, where al-Qa’eda remains dangerous despite suffering a serious defeat in Iraq.

Their victims have included experienced Arab leaders and, it is now thought, Adam Gadahn, a former heavy-metal fan and so-called “killer computer nerd” originally from California. Nothing has been heard from him for months, leading intelligence experts to conclude that he may be dead. Read more