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And while “the fog of war” is an often overused term, in this case it may well apply to both multiple middle eastern media sources quoting and re-quoting the same bad source. Misidentificationcan even be evidence of an international intelligence agency wanting so much to succeed that they have somehow ID’d the wrong man and/or erroneously report his capture. Should the man in custody ultimately turn out to be Gadahn, I still offer the following background information:

Adam Yahiye Gadahn, aka Adam Pearlman and “Azzam the American,” a 31-year-old Jewish American originally from Oregon, has allegedly been arrested by Pakistan intelligence operatives in that country. Gadahn’s parents changed their last name from Pearlman to a variant of a warrior named in the Christian Bible (Gideon). His paternal grandfather was an avid supporter of Israel, and he grew up with his three siblings and their parents on a remote, 60-acre California goat farm. When a teenager he moved to live with his grandparents. He would later say that he tried to fill the void within him by initially embracing Christianity, but soon converted to Islam, linked up with a local al-Qaedasupport group and shortly thereafter moved to Pakistan where he would marry a local Afgan woman.

Conversion

Gadahn, like so many before him, converted to a particular belief system while under the influence of others. Radical Islamic fundamentalists he associated with once allegedly told him he needed to kill his parents, this as they drew him deeper and deeper into their violent belief system. Prior to moving to Pakistan he was one of a large group of individuals who shared the same radicalized beliefs, to include hatred of Jews and blaming the United States for the problems of the Islamic world. He was young, emotionally vulnerable and desperately seeking his own unique identity; one he would find as a member of al-Qaeda.

“The Right Person in the Right Place”

Gadahn would later “graduate” from an al-Qaedatraining camp and thereafter quickly gained favor with senior al-Qaeda leaders, allegedly to include Osama bin Laden (OBL) himself. As a native speaking American without any known formal education after high school, he nonetheless was able to rise from the rank of translator to one of al-Qaeda’s chief propagandists, something, in his own small way, akin to what Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Reich Minister of Propaganda, did for the Nazi party during WWII.

He has been seen in a number of al-Qaeda produced films and Internet broadcasts, the latest released today in which he referred to U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan, the radicalized Islamic fundamentalist who either killed or wounded 50 people at Ft. Hood, TX, as “a pioneer.” Praising Hasan’s murderous actions, Gadahn suggested that other Muslim Americans should follow Hasan’s “lone wolf” actions and attack America from within, further indicating that such an act could lead to religious martyrdom without the need to die in the act.

Most of his video appearances were apparently designed to praise those who attacked America on 9/11 and to attract and/or motivate other Western born Muslims or converts to take up the gun against America. In one appearance he threatened that American streets would “run red with blood.” Appearing in a video almost three years ago, Gadahn made multiple demands against America that need be followed otherwise America would “experience things which will make you forget all about the horrors of September 11th, Afghanistan and Iraq.” Some in the intelligence community believed this to be a veiled reference to the future use of weapons of mass destruction by al-Qaeda.

In 2006 Gadahnwas indicted in U.S. District Court in California for treason, the first American to be so charged in well over 50-years. The FBI had placed him on their international wanted list and offered a $1 million dollar reward for his capture, something that a Pakistani may be able to collect if the man in custody is actually Gadahn.

Gadahn was allegedly arrested outside of Karachi, Pakistan, some 1,500 miles from Baghdad, Iraq. He had probably moved from safe house to safe house to avoid apprehension and if arrested, was likely sold out by someone hoping to collect the reward money on his head. While some believe that al-Qaeda leadership hide out in remote caves on the Afgan/Pakistan border, other reports put them in relative modern housing in and around large middle eastern cities. Most should realize that notwithstanding the media reports of his arrest today, he or any similar high value target would remain in custody, being debriefed for days or longer before his arrested was revealed. By this, whenever a high value fugitive like Gadahn is located, there is a need to extract tactical (or short term/immediate action) intelligence from him before his arrest becomes known to his associates. This allows these intelligence agencies to track his movements, identify his family and associates, lock onto his communications system, and, in his case, determine the location of even higher value fugitives, to include either Ayman al Zawahri, bin Laden’s number two-man to whom Gadahn reported, or even OBLhimself. Once his apprehension becomes a matter of general knowledge, his captors will begin to develop strategic or long term intelligence from him that will assist in the ongoing prosecution of the war against his fellow terrorists.

Gadahn’s alleged apprehension (or that of any high value al-Qaedaoperative) will undoubtedly be touted as the best yet example of Pakistan’s cooperation with Western intelligence agencies in an attempt to root out terrorists operating within the borders of that country. Rumors of Gahahn’s capture or death have circulated for over two years, but each time he came out with a new video that proved he was still around. His reported arrest will in all likelihood be a crippling blow to al-Qaeda’s propaganda machine and their attempt to recruit Western Muslims to attack targets within America and other Western countries. His ability to speak both Arab and English and to appeal to Muslim Americans made him a key operative for al-Qaeda, and his arrest will likely cause other potential home grown terrorist candidates to reconsider any attempt on their part to follow his same treasonous course of action.

If this is actually Gadahn, U.S. President Barack Obama, whom Gadahn allegedly once referred to as a “House Negro,” will be in the position to consider where Gadahn will face trial. Unlike his resent change of heart in bringing to trial international terrorists in New York City, since Gordan was indicted in the Central District of California, President Obama could be expected to allow Gadahn’s eventual trial to take place in “the golden state.” This would be logical, legal, and most appropriate for the captured American terrorist. And even though Gadahn was once shown in an al-Qaeda produced video tearing up his American passport, I’m sure the U.S. State Department will to glad to issue him a replacement to use to help him reenter the United States and to enter Federal Prison.

Gadahn will soon join the small but growing ranks of American terrorists like John Walker Lindhand Jose Padilla (both American terrorists sentenced to 20 and 17 years in prison respectively), as well as Major Nidal Hasan, all of whom were captured and charged with crimes against their country, something far different than they could expect from al-Qaeda were the tables to be turned on them.