| Adam Yahiye Gadahn |
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| al-qaeda members | |
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Adam Yahiye Gadahn (born September 1 , 1978 ) is an American-born man who is suspected of being a member of the Al Qaeda organization. He is notable for his suspected appearances as " Azzam The American ", a spokesperson in videotapes which claim to be messages from Al Qaeda to the United States . BACKGROUND Gadahn was born Adam Pearlman, the son of musician Phil Pearlman. Gadahn's family raised Goat s on a farm in Riverside County , California and butchered the goats in accordance with Halal food requirements for sale to Muslim groceries. Gadahn's Jewish grandfather was a prominent surgeon named Pearlman but Gadahn's father converted to Christianity and changed his name to "Gadahn", derived from the name of the Biblical figure " Gideon ". He was Homeschooled until 15, when he moved in with his grandparents in Santa Ana, California . Gadahn was fond of Heavy Metal music and later briefly listened to fringe fundamentalist Christian radio stations before converting to Islam . In 1995 , Gadahn posted an essay to the USC website describing his conversion, entitled "Becoming a Muslim". According to his parents, Gadahn moved to Pakistan in 1998 , where he married an Afghan refugee and maintained intermittent contact with his family. http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/newmuslims/yahiye.html (USC website with Gadahn's writings) On May 26 , 2004 , Gadahn was listed along with six others by United States Attorney General John Ashcroft when he announced that Al Qaeda members were planning a terrorist attack during the summer or fall of 2004. The attack, purportedly designed to affect the US presidential election, never materialized. Gadahn's name was the only new name released by Ashcroft in this warning; the others; Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani , Amer El-Maati , Aafia Siddiqui , Fazul Abdullah Mohammed , Abderraouf Jdey , and Adnan Gulshair El Shukrijumah had all been on FBI wanted lists for some time. ALLEGED APPEARANCES IN AL QAEDA VIDEOS In late October 2004 , ABC News broadcast a 75-minute videotape of a man who identified himself as " Azzam The American " threatening the United States with terrorist attacks. After the network played excerpts of the video, Haitham Bundjaki, the mosque chairman who served as a witness during Gadahn's conversion to Islam, told law enforcement officials that he believed the man in the video was Gadahn. In 2005 , on the fourth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 Attacks , an eleven minute videotape message purportedly from Al-Qaeda was broadcast on the ABC News program '' Good Morning America ''. The American English-accented speaker, a man whose face was partially concealed, was identified by US intelligence officials to be Gadahn. The speaker criticized US foreign policy and military activity, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he suggested that there would be future attacks in Los Angeles, California and Melbourne, Australia : "Yesterday, London and Madrid. Tomorrow, Los Angeles and Melbourne, God willing. At this time, don't count on us demonstrating restraint or compassion." REFERENCES |
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