Speculation rages over reported arrest of Adam Gadahn
Adam Gadahn is seen in these undated pictures released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Pakistani security agents have arrested an American al Qaeda spokesman wanted in the United States for treason in threatening violence unless al Qaeda demands are met, Pakistani officials said on March 7, 2010. News of the arrest of 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. REUTERS/FBI/Handout
Pakistanis arrest man, but whom? (Los Angeles Times):
U.S. officials cast doubt early Monday on Pakistani intelligence statements that Karachi officials had arrested a Southern California native, a top propagandist for Al Qaeda who is wanted by the U.S. on treason charges.
U.S. intelligence agencies spent Sunday sorting out conflicting reports on the purported arrest of Adam Gadahn of Riverside. By late Sunday night, U.S. officials said the picture remained unclear.
“In terms of who may have been arrested, the Pakistani rumor mill belched out three very different possibilities in about six hours,” one U.S. official said. “That should tell you something right there. It’s by no means clear who, if anyone, the Pakistanis may have captured.”
Another U.S. official, who asked not to be identified, said early Monday, “There’s no reason to believe that it’s true, and we are highly skeptical.”
The names that surfaced Sunday included Gadahn, Abu Yahya Al-Libi and Abu Yahya Mujahdeen Al-Adam, said to be an Al Qaeda affiliate born in Pennsylvania.
Pakistan Arrests American Al Qaeda Member, Identity Not Confirmed (ABC News):
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.
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.
Dawn, an English-language newspaper, reports that Abu Yahya Mujahdeen al-Adam is an Egyptian-born U.S. citizen from Pennsylvania who helps command foreign militants fighting in Afghanistan and coordinates activities from Dubai.
The newspaper reports he is a close aide of Osama bin Laden and one of the “main financiers” of al Qaeda, and that he was arrested with the help of U.S. intelligence, and has been transported to Islamabad for interrogation.
American-born al-Qaeda spokesman arrested in Pakistan (timesonline.co.uk):
An American-born al-Qaeda spokesman who is also the first US citizen to be charged with treason in more than half a century has been arrested by Pakistani security forces on the outskirts of Karachi.
Adam Gadahn, considered a key figure because of his success in recruiting English-speaking converts to jihad, was picked up on a tip-off indicating the extent of support by Pakistani intelligence in the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taleban.
Gadahn was born in Oregon to parents of Jewish heritage and raised on a goat farm in southern California. He worshipped a form an obscure offshoot of heavy metal music known as “death metal” as a teenager and converted to radical Islam in his twenties. Now 31, he has been on the FBI’s mostwanted list since he started appearing in al-Qaeda propaganda videos as Abu Yahya Mujahideen Al-Adam in 2004.
Gadahn was arrested while being driven in a pick-up truck on Saturday night near where Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was detained last month, intelligence sources confirmed yesterday.
Suspect arrested in Pakistan not Gadahn: officials (Reuters):
Pakistani security agents denied on Monday that an American al Qaeda spokesman wanted in the United States for treason had been arrested, saying there had been confusion over the identity of a detained suspect.
Some Pakistani officials had said on Sunday that Adam Gadahn, a California-born convert to Islam with a $1 million U.S. bounty on his head, had been arrested on the outskirts of the city of Karachi.
But a senior government official and two security agents said on Monday the suspected al Qaeda operative picked up in Karachi was not Gadahn.
“Our initial impression was that the guy was Adam Gadahn but that information now looks incorrect,” said one security official, who declined to be identified. The arrested man was believed to be an American who goes by the alias Abu Yahya, the officials said. Gadahn is known to have used a similar alias.
“Probably the name and his origin caused the confusion,” the first official said.
He declined to speculate about the identity of the arrested man except to say he was apparently an American al Qaeda operative.
“We don’t know yet how big a catch he is,” he said.
Pakistan is battling indigenous, al Qaeda-linked Taliban militants and has resisted U.S. pressure to launch military offensives against Afghan Taliban factions based in rugged ethnic Pashtun lands on its northwestern border.
Doubts Over Arrest Of American-Born Al-Qaida (AP):
There’s growing confusion over whether an American-born spokesman for al-Qaida has been arrested by Pakistani intelligence officers.
Two officers and a government official say Adam Gadahn was recently captured in Karachi. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.
U.S. defense, intelligence and law enforcement officials could not immediately verify the reported detention of Gadahn, who has appeared on videos threatening the West, including one that emerged earlier today.
Some observers are cautious about giving credence to the claim that Gadahn is in custody as reports emerged that the man arrested might instead be a Taliban militant leader.
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