Adam Gadahn, Catch and Release - Mistaken Identity or Intelligence Blunder?

Adam Gadahn, Catch and Release - Mistaken Identity or Intelligence Blunder?
2010 03 08

By Elizabeth Leafloor | RedIceCreations.com

An American member of al-Qaida was arrested in a raid in Pakistan’s southern city of Karachi, Pakistani officials said Monday.
Gadahn, notorious 31-year-old ’spokesman’ for al-Qaida, is known for his videos supporting the actions of al-Qaida and has appeared in "more than a half-dozen al-Qaida videos, taunting the West and calling for its destruction. A video that surfaced Sunday showed him urging American Muslims to attack the U.S."

Adam Gadahn, a convert to Islam who acts as the US spokesman for al-Qaida seen here in an al-Qaida video: Pakistan officials now say the man they arrested on Saturday is not Gadahn. Photograph: AS-SAHAB/AFP/Getty Images

It was claimed they had captured Gadahn, but Pakistani intelligence then reversed earlier assertions that the detained man was the U.S.-born spokesman, claiming there had been a misidentification with a similarly-named man with an uncanny physical resemblance and an American background. American al-Qaida suspect nabbed.

Although this ’now we have him, now we don’t’ could be a simple snafu on the part of Pakistani intelligence and truly a case of mistaken identity, it is not far removed from the classic ’patsy’ scenarios wherein assets of intelligence operations are protected from arrest by handlers so they’re available when needed.

The timing of his recent video and subsequent capture (and misidentification?) are probably not unrelated.

While Pakistani and western media outlets were altered to his arrest and publishing the news, could it be that US intelligence were scrambling to have their important asset released and back under their covert control, while releasing a new narrative to explain away the coincidences?

Aspects of this story echo in other supposed ’blunders’ when U.S. forces missed their chance to get bin Laden in 2001, when ’9/11 highjacker’ Mohammed Atta was pulled over for speeding and released, and where the US government knew the ’Underwear Bomber’, yet allowed him to board anyway.

It is not impossible that Pakistani intelligence simply nabbed a man that was definitely in the wrong place at the wrong time, but while it is convenient to have Osama bin Laden continuing to produce videos striking fear, anger, and determination into the hearts and minds of the western world at a time when support for the multiple wars are lagging, so is it very accommodating to have Adam Gadahn escape justice once more to continue his similar video legacy.

American arrested in Pakistan ’not al-Qaida US spokesman’

Officials who identified American detainee as being Islamic convert Adam Gadahn now say they made a mistake.

Pakistani intelligence officials today denied that an American militant suspect arrested in Karachi was al-Qaida’s US-born spokesman.

Yesterday two intelligence officers and a senior government official identified the detained man as Adam Gadahn, a 31-year-old California-born convert to Islam who has appeared on videos threatening the west, including one that emerged earlier the same day.

But a senior government official and two security agents said today the suspect was not Gadahn.

"Our initial impression was that the guy was Adam Gadahn but that information now looks incorrect," a security official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.

The arrested man was believed to be an American who goes by the alias of Abu Yahya. Gadahn is known to have used a similar alias. "Probably the name and his origin caused the confusion," the official said.

Gadahn, the first American to be charged with treason since the second world war era, is one of the FBI’s top 10 most wanted terrorists and has had a $1m (£660,400) reward offered for information leading to his capture.

In a video released yesterday , Gadahn praised Nidal Malik Hassan, the Muslim-American army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 soldiers at an army base in Texas in November, calling him a role model.

US embassy spokesman Rick Snelsire said the embassy had not been informed of any American being arrested.

Article from: Guardian.co.uk

Video from: YouTube.com

Share |

Latest News from our Front Page

No Bank Deposits Will Be Spared from Confiscation
2013 05 18
As alert Zero Hedge readers are aware, this week the EURO Politburo is busy debating the dodgy subject of deposit "bail-ins." The following article very succinctly explains this odious mode of fractal fractional reserve end-game chicanery. The author encourages all of you to share it with others. NO BANK DEPOSITS WILL BE SPARED FROM CONFISCATION By Matthias Chang Esq, futurefastforward.com (with author’s permission) I challenge ...

Military Says No Presidential Authorization Needed To Quell “Civil Disturbances”
2013 05 17
A recent Department of Defense instruction alters the US code applying to the military’s involvement in domestic law enforcement by allowing US troops to quell “civil disturbances” domestically without any Presidential authorization, greasing the skids for a de facto military coup in America along with the wholesale abolition of Posse Comitatus. The instruction (embedded at the end of this article), which ...

Ancient Maya Pyramid Destroyed in Belize
2013 05 17
An archaeological group says it plans to take legal action. Despite its small size, the Caribbean country of Belize is known for a few outstanding characteristics: a spectacular barrier reef, a teeming rain forest, and extensive Maya ruins. It now has one fewer of those ruins. A construction company in Belize has been scooping stone out of the major pyramid at the site ...

Ginger: A Warming Herb
2013 05 17
Ginger is an Asian herb that is particularly well known to us in the West. Over time, and with trial and error, its stimulating properties and piquant flavor have been integrated into both our herbal “materia medica” and cuisine. Brewed as an herbal tea, ginger root is particularly helpful for those people who have underactive stomachs and difficulty producing adequate amounts ...

Australian man dead for 40 minutes revived with new CPR machine
2013 05 17
In an Australian first, doctors have used a new resuscitation technique to revive three patients who were clinically dead for up to an hour. One of the lucky survivors was Colin Fiedler, 49, who was pronounced dead at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, Victoria, after suffering a heart attack, The Herald Sun reported. Doctors brought Fieldler back to life using a U.S.-made ...

More News »