Page A-2: Tape With Terror Threat Is Broadcast

ABC News aired a videotape last night of a purported American member of al Qaeda declaring that a new series of terrorist attacks against the United States could come "at any moment."

The network, which has held the tape since Monday while it tried to authenticate it, acted after being told by the CIA that the video bears "all the trademarks of an al Qaeda production," as reporter Brian Ross explained. Federal investigators do not know the identity of the man on the tape, but copies are going to 13 current and former officials named during the 75-minute video.

Officials have been unable to match the speaker's voice to any known al Qaeda supporter or sympathizer.

The speaker, face obscured by a headdress and identified only as "Azzam the American," says on the videotape: "No, my fellow countrymen, you are guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty. You are as guilty as Bush and Cheney. You're as guilty as Rumsfeld and Ashcroft and Powell."

The man continued: "After decades of American tyranny and oppression, now it's your turn to die. Allah willing, the streets of America will run red with blood, matching drop for drop the blood of America's victims." The man speaks in accented English, pronouncing, for example, "tyranny" as "tie-ranny."

He also makes references to comedian Bill Maher, who once said that suicide attackers were less cowardly than long-distance cruise missile launchers, and Sept. 11 commission Chairman Thomas H. Kean (R). The man also criticizes Muslims who have lost their faith. "September 11 was but the opening salvo of the global war on America," he says.

Thanks for the link to the video - this guy sounds whacky (and his eye's look blue, not brwn like adam's; so I'm still a bit suspicious) ... they also report its Adam G; more info from here:

http://www.yuppiesofzion.com/archives/000967.php

about Adam:

SUCH A (NOT-SO-)NICE (NOT-SO-)JEWISH BOY

Proving the old adage that sometimes the biggest anti-semite is just a self-hating Jew, one of the FBI's new "BOLO" (Be On the Look Out) terrorism suspects is an Islamic convert named Abu Suhayb Al-Amriki, a.k.a. Abu Suhayb, a.k.a. Yihya Majadin Adams, a.k.a. Adam Yahiye Gadahn, a.k.a. Adam Pearlman. Yep, you read that right.

Curiousity piqued, I poked around on the Net for more clues about this bad boy and put together the following fun information from various sources: Adam Pearlman/Gadahn is actually the half-Jewish half-Catholic son of rural California goat-farming hippies who home-schooled him and his siblings and encouraged him to study various religions:

"His aunt says "he was raised to be religious, to believe in a god, and was given the opportunity to read the Koran and read the bible and read, you know, the Torah's part of the bible, I mean the old testament, the new testament and the Koran. And he made his own choice"."

Flashbacks and parallels to Marin County, California experimenting-with-religion fighting-for-the-Taliban hippie-brat John Walker Lindh, anyone?

Well, if you think that's funny, you should read Adam's own essay on becoming a Muslim. It was apparently written in late 1995, posted to a Usenet newsgroup in 1997, and is now featured on various websites all over the Net, including on the USC Muslim Students Association website. You think they'll take down his essay now that he made the FBI's Most Wanted list? Somehow, I don't think it would be considered very good prosteltyzing material anymore. (Or maybe it would, I dunno.)

Some high points of Adam's spiritual awakening, in his own words:

"In the meantime, I had become obsessed with demonic Heavy Metal music, something the rest of my family (as I now realize, rightfully so) was not happy with. My entire life was focused on expanding my music collection. I eschewed personal cleanliness and let my room reach an unbelievable state of disarray. My relationship with my parents became strained, although only intermittently so. I am sorry even as I write this...

...The turning point, perhaps, was when I moved in with my grandparents here in Santa Ana, the county seat of Orange, California. My grandmother, a computer whiz, is hooked up to America Online and I have been scooting the information superhighway since January. But when I moved in, with the intent of finding a job (easier said than done), I begin to visit the religion folders on AOL and the Usenet newsgroups, where I found discussions on Islam to be the most intriguing..."

So he's apparently sorry for listening to Heavy Metal and sorry for being a slob and sorry for not being nicer to his parents--though apparently not that sorry, since news reports say he hasn't talked to them since late 2001, at which point he called them from Pakistan to say that he had gotten married to a refugee and was expecting a baby.

What I want to know is if he's sorry for allegedly acting as a translator at Al Qaida training camps. Or assaulting an employee of Islamic Society of Orange County, apparently because they weren't extreme enough for him--even though the head of the ISOC is Muzammil Siddiqi, who in 1995, the same year Adam was busy converting to Islam at his mosque, gave a speech praising suicide bombers. I mean, if Adam assaulted a member of the staff at the mosque because Adam is more religiously extreme than even guys like Siddiqi...well, you fill in the rest.

Oh, and in 1997, Adam ended up a co-worker of Khalil al-Deek, the suspected mastermind of the Y2K plot to bomb LAX. Coincidence, I'm sure.

Also, note that while his family has been described in news reports as Christian Universalists, his father was at one point Jewish and changed his last name from Pearlman to Gadahn in the 1970's when he dropped out of society and started goat-farming. His aunt (and presumably the rest of his family) still go by Pearlman. And if you need further verification, look no further than that Yiddishe punim on his Most Wanted photo. He's only a few months older than me, not even old enough to be a Gen X'er, and he looks like he's not even old enough to drink. Creepy.

The report also says his father picked the new name "Gadahn" from the Bible. Any Hebrew or Aramaic speakers out there know what "Gadahn" means and what verse of the Bible it refers to?

Justin at the blog Rightside Redux has more on Mr. Pearlman/Gadahn/whoever-he-is, including links to music reviews he did for a Heavy Metal zine back before he gave up Quiet Riot for Jihad."

"Christian Universalists, his father was at one point Jewish and changed his last name from Pearlman to Gadahn in the 1970's ..."

So, just like John Kerry's Jewish Dad (Granddad?), just like Karl Marx's Jewish Dad, we have a dude whose DAD somehow screws this kid up because of naming ... there is something going on here that is not written about enough, not properly explained...something that explains why Jewish Leftist Males create sons that absolutely are super flakes...

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