By Helen Kennedy

NY Daily News

Also posted at Right Truth

Pakistani officials claimed Sunday they nabbed Adam Gadahn, the treasonous Californian Al Qaeda leader who has long been on Washington’s most wanted list.

But high-level U.S. officials said they could not verify the report – and there were growing indications it could be a mixup.

President Obama did not mention what would be a welcome blow against terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden when he made a statement to reporters about the Iraqi election yesterday. He ignored a shouted question about Gadahn.

“We are checking with Pakistani authorities to confirm one way or the other,” said FBI spokesman William Carter.

A Pakistani official told Agence France-Presse that “we thought it could have beena big catch, but it appeared it’s not Gadahn.”

The confusing swirl of reports began in Karachi, where The Associated Press and several news outlets quoted Pakistani officials announcing the arrest of Bin Laden’s American mouthpiece.

An English-language paper ran a photo of a man said to be Gadahn being taken away with a bag on his head. Later reports suggested the arrested man might not be Gadahn but a Taliban commander with a similar name.

Gadahn, 31, is the first American to be charged with treason since World War II. If convicted, he would face the death penalty.

Stories about Gadahn’s arrest came just hours after he appeared in a new Internet video urging American Muslims to go on shooting sprees like Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan’s at Fort Hood, Tex., last year.

Gadahn’s arrest would be the latest in a series of successes in the new partnership between Pakistan’s once-balky intelligence services and the CIA.

Known in Al Qaeda videos as “Azzam the American” or Azzam al-Amereeki, Gadahn was born in Oregon to a Jewish family.

His hippie father converted to Christianity before his son was born, changing the family name from Pearlman to Gadahn, after an Old Testament warrior.

Adam Gadhan was home-schooled in Southern California on a goat farm without running water. Once an avid fan of Death Metal music, he converted to Islam at 17 and moved to Pakistan in 1998 at 20.

Intelligence officials say he joined up with Al Qaeda after 9/11 and attended terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.

By 2004, he was a senior Al Qaeda operative and became Bin Laden’s top propagandist, appearing in numerous Internet videos calling for the destruction of America. In a 2008 video he tore up his U.S. passport on camera and urged Americans to launch domestic terrorist attacks.

He is believed to report directly to Bin Laden’s right-hand man, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Gadahn was branded a traitor in 2006 by a federal grand jury in Santa Ana, Calif. He would be tried in a federal court, like California native John Walker Lindh and ex-Chicago gang member Jose Padilla.

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Al-Qaida calls on US Muslims to attack America

By PATRICK QUINN

Courtesy of My Way News

CAIRO (AP) – Al-Qaida’s American-born spokesman on Sunday called on Muslims serving in the U.S. armed forces to emulate the Army major charged with killing 13 people in Fort Hood.

In a 25-minute video posted on militant Web sites, Adam Gadahn described Maj. Nidal Hasan as a pioneer who should serve as a role model for other Muslims, especially those serving Western militaries.

“Brother Nidal is the ideal role-model for every repentant Muslim in the armies of the unbelievers and apostate regimes,” he said.

Gadahn, also known as Azzam al-Amriki, was dressed in white robes and wearing a white turban as he called for attacks on what he described as “high-value targets.” Gadahn grew up on a goat farm in Riverside County, California, and converted to Islam at a mosque in nearby Orange County.

“You shouldn’t make the mistake of thinking that military bases are the only high-value targets in America and the West. On the contrary, there are countless other strategic places, institutions and installations which, by striking, the Muslim can do major damage,” he said, an assault rifle leaning up against a wall next to him. Gadahn has been wanted by the FBI since 2004 and two years later was charged with treason. There is a $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction.

He has in the past posted videos and messages calling for the destruction of the West and for strikes against targets in the United States. His location is unknown, but he is believed to be somewhere along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Hasan has been charged in the Nov. 5 shooting that killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas. The 39-year-old Army psychiatrist remains paralyzed from the chest down after being shot by two civilian members of Fort Hood’s police force.

“Nidal Hasan is a pioneer, a trailblazer and a role-model who has opened a door, lit a path and shown the way forward for every Muslim who finds himself among the unbelievers,” Gadahn said.

In the latest video, Gadahn said those planning attacks did not need to use only firearms like Hasan, but could use other weapons. “As the blessed operations of September 11th showed, a little imagination and planning and a limited budget can turn almost anything into a deadly, effective and convenient weapon.”

Gadahn said fighters should target mass transportation systems in the West and also wreak havoc “by killing or capturing people in government, industry and the media.”

He recommended finding ways to shake “consumer confidence and stifle spending” and noted that even unsuccessful attacks, such as the failed attempt to bomb a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day, can bring major cities to a halt.

“I am calling on every honest and vigilant Muslim in the countries of the Zionist-Crusader alliance in general and America, Britain and Israel in particular to prepare to play his due role in responding to and repelling the aggression of the enemies of Islam,” Gadahn said.