Al-Qaeda propaganda man faces the wrath of US security forces
By Philip Jacobson
With Osama bin Laden's mugshot on the FBI's Most Wanted website now bearing the stark label "deceased", US counter-terrorism specialists are turning their attention to an American citizen who is one of Al-Qaeda's most influential figures.
Although little known outside security circles, Adam Gadahn has been running the organisation's highly effective propaganda operations for the past decade. He has produced, translated and sub-titled many of the top quality video tapes in which Bin Laden threatened death and destruction to the enemies of Islam.
According to Pentagon sources, the tapes captured in the assault on Bin Laden's compound in Pakistan, some of them showing Bin Laden watching himself appearing on television, were probably made under Gadahn's direction in a different hide-out.
Apart from his technical skills and his role as "cultural interpreter" for leaders who knew very little about life in the West, Gadahn has appeared on camera himself under the nom-de-guerre of Azzam al-Amriki (Adam the American), often cradling an AK-47 rifle as he railed against the infidels.
Copies of these incendiary videos, smuggled out of Afghanistan by couriers and initially distributed to Arab TV networks like Al Jazeera, have been discovered by police investigating Islamic terrorist networks in Britain, Spain and Germany.
Born in Orange County, California, in 1978, Gadahn has both Jewish and Christian roots but converted to Islam as a teenager and was recruited by hard-line fundamentalists at his local mosque who had links to al-Qaeda.
After making his way to Afghanistan with their help, he joined the group's propaganda arm, As Sahad, soon earning the trust of Bin Laden and his senior lieutenants.
In 2006, a US court indicted Gadahn in absentia for treason, a crime that could earn him a death sentence, and the FBI put a price of $1m on his head. While Bin Laden's notoriously ruthless deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, is now likely to take over the leadership of al-Qaeda, Gadahn can expect to retain his key position in disseminating the organisation's message of hatred and violence (Zawahiri has hailed him as "our American brother").
Among US officials closely involved with the war on al-Qaeda, Gadahn inspires particularly visceral loathing as a traitor with American blood on his hands. Previous efforts to bring him to justice have included mass distribution of leaflets in Afghanistan bearing his photograph and promising a fat reward for turning him in. Last year there were reports that he had been arrested in Pakistan, but that turned out to be a case of mistaken identity.
In the face of growing disquiet in some Washington circles at the willingness to assassinate US subjects without trial (raised by Alexander Cockburn in his column this week), an intelligence officer told The First Post that the hunt for Gadahn would continue until he was captured or killed. "We're going to pursue that **** to the ends of the earth and believe me, one fine day we'll nail him."
