Allison Addicott

Another in a recent series of surprising developments, today’s news is important for diplomacy and the continued cooperation between the United States and Middle Eastern governments. Following in the theme of this column’s most recent post, Pakistan’s actions appear to demonstrate further cooperation with US goals in that tense region of the world. Pakistani authorities, as reported by the Associated Press, located and arrested U>S.-born Adam Yahiye Gadahn late Saturday night.

On the FBI’s most-wanted-terrorist list, Adam Gadahn, born September 1, 1978,  is reported to have been arrested outside the city of Karachi by Pakistani authorities. The earlier arrest in recent weeks, that of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar (charged with being a top Afghan Taliban commander) took place in the same vicinity. As of this writing, neither the White House nor the State Department have released official statements regarding what may be a very important development in the process of tracking down pivotal al-Qaeda operatives.

A significant find, Adam Gadahn has been active for over five years in working on propaganda and propaganda videos for al-Qaeda.  Not only is Gadahn on the FBI’s “most wanted” list, he is accused of treason. Gadahn is purportedly the first to be charged with treason since the Second World War in the United States. According to the report, Gadahn, 31, was raised in a rural area just outside Los Angeles in Riverside County. He was indicted in 2006 in an Orange County (adjacent to Riverside) federal court for “allegedly providing material support” to al-Qaeda by means of appearing in five inflammatory anti-American propagandist videos between 2004 and 2006.

Gadahn’s role appears to have been both propagandist and recruiter – being able to use his  English in an attempt to recruit others.  According to the report, he also appeared next to Ayman Zawahiri, one of al-Qaeda’s “number two” men in recent videos.  Al-Jazeera’s English language report and the FBI’s site include multiple aliases: of “Yahya Majadin Adams” and “Azzam al-Amriki”, and “Adam Pearlman”, among others.

Reporter Alex Rodriguez of the LA Times also queried the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles regarding the arrest, and Salam Marayati, their spokesman, said, “This is one step closer to defeating al-Qaeda and defeating the mentality of death and despair, which is alien to Islam.” Suggesting that using religion to support political pursuits was a “political ploy”, he said that Gadahr’s propaganda “[has no] merit in Islam.”