Adam Gadahn, seen in these undated photos released by the FBI, is suspected of attending an al-Qaida training camp and working as a translator for the terror group. His father, a Hemet resident, is baffled by the allegations. Adam Gadahn didn't attend college, choosing instead to move to the suburbs of Los Angeles where he became a Muslim and worshipped at the Islamic Society of Orange County. The mosque later expelled him for attacking one of its leaders.He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts of assault and battery in connection with the May 1997 fight. He was sentenced to two days in jail and five days of community service, but he never showed up for the community service. There is an outstanding warrant for his arrest.
Adam Gadahn worked in 1997 at Charity Without Borders in Garden Grove, where Khalil al-Deek, a terrorist suspect with alleged ties to Osama bin Laden, also was employed. It is not clear if the two were friends.
Rita Katz, executive director of terrorism research group Site Institute, said al-Deek was a suspected mastermind of the millennium plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Day 2000.
Al-Deek was jailed in Jordan for 17 months on suspicion of being involved in a bombing plot, but he was never charged with a crime. He was released in May 2001 and deported to the United Arab Emirates.
FBI officials in Los Angeles said Adam Gadahn was last known to be in Southern California in 1997 or 1998. His father said he traveled to Pakistan with friends and, at first, would write two or three times a year but that became less frequent. "He just faded," Philip Gadahn said.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/terror/20040528-0715-terrorthreat-gadahn.html