Pakistani intelligence agents say they have captured an American al-Qaida operative, but they have reversed their initial assertion that he is Adam Gadahn, who is wanted in the United States on a treason charge.
Pakistani officials said Monday the man they arrested recently in the southern port city of Karachi appears to be another American with the alias Abu Yahya Majadin al-Adam.
They said the similarity of the name with those sometimes used by Adam Gadahn initially caused some confusion.
Additional stories
From the Wall Street Journal
Pakistan said it has arrested a Taliban leader, but there were conflicting reports about his identity and the role he played in the al Qaeda network.
Senior Pakistani official identified the detainee as Abu Yahya or Abu Yahaya.
Earlier, media reports quoted officials in Pakistan as saying the man was an American-born spokesman for al Qaeda, Adam Gadahn. But the senior Pakistani official said he didn’t believe Mr. Gadahn had been arrested.
A second senior Pakistani official also denied that any American national has been seized. “Adam Gadahn has not been captured,” he said.
From ABC News
Adam Gadahn
A Taliban leader who goes by the name Abu Yahya, just like American-turned-al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn, was picked up in Karachi in recent days, but that person is not Gadahn, a senior Pakistani government official told ABC News.But there are conflicting reports about whether it is notorious Adam Gadahn.
Reports of the capture of an American-born al-Qaeda member by Pakistani authorities gave rise to speculation over whether it was Gadahn, the 31-year-old California-born Muslim convert who has been wanted since 2004.
The official told ABC News the leader who was arrested was possibly Abu Yahya Mujahdeen al-Adam, said to be another American member of al Qaeda, but the Pakistanis have yet to make that identification positive, the official said. Read Full Article
From DAWN News in India
An American Al Qaeda leader, Adam Yahiye Gadahn, was arrested in Karachi on Sunday, US and Pakistani diplomatic sources told journalists here.
Gadahn was likely detained in Sohrab Goth, a major Pashtun area in northern Karachi, which also has a large population of tribesmen from North and South Waziristan.
Also known as ‘Azzam the American’, Gadahn has long been on the US ‘Most Wanted List’. Officials in Washington described his capture as ‘a major victory’ in the war against Al Qaeda.
All major US media outlets, while reporting the arrest of Osama bin Laden’s spokesman, also credited DawnNews with breaking the news.
From CBS News
Two Pakistani officers and a government official said Sunday that an American charged with treason for working with al Qaeda had been captured, a development that could deliver another significant blow in the U.S.-led battle against the terror network.
U.S. defense, intelligence and law enforcement officials could not immediately verify the reported detention of Adam Gadahn, a 31-year-old spokesman for al Qaeda who has appeared on videos threatening the West, including one that emerged earlier Sunday.
The reported arrest of Gadahn follows the recent detention of several Afghan Taliban commanders in Karachi, including the group’s No. 2. Those detentions have been seen as a sign that Pakistan, which has been criticized as an untrustworthy ally, was cooperating more fully with Washington.
Some observers were cautious about giving credence to the claim that Gadahn was in custody as reports emerged that the man arrested might instead be a Taliban militant leader. There was no way of independently verifying the arrest or identity, and detentions of terror suspects in Pakistan are often surrounded by conflicting reports.
From Indian Express News
Pakistani security agents have arrested an American al Qaeda spokesman wanted in the United States for treason for threatening violence unless al Qaeda demands are met, Pakistani officials said on Sunday.
News of the arrest of Adam Gadahn, a California-born convert to Islam, came the day a video was released in which he called for Muslims in the United States to launch attacks to undermine the economy, according to a website monitoring al Qaeda announcements.
The capture of Gadahn, believed to be in his early 30s, is the latest in a series of militant arrests in US ally Pakistan that has raised hopes for more concerted action against the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda as U.S. forces battle militants over the border in Afghanistan.
“He was arrested in Karachi recently,” said a Pakistani security agent who declined to be identified.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=7b8fc226-fde6-4900-9ea6-571edac0a276)
How delightful!
I look forward to reading in the future this terrorist will rot behind bars for the rest of his natural life.
He should be dealt with using a military tribunal as a traitor. After finding him guilty, he should either be executed before a firing squad or hanged until dead.
Isn’t Treason punishable by death?
If and when this American traitor/al Qaeda member is captured and convicted of Treason, hopefully he will receive the death penalty. Millions of Americans would like to see that execution on TV.