Adam Gadahn's paternal grandfather was Jewish and a militant Zionist, but his grandmother was a Christian and edited a Christian newspaper. This is a divided-up young man, and even his roots are divided.
His dad, Phil Pearlman, came of age in the Orange County hippie scene of the late '60's, played music, got married, converted to Christianity, and along with his wife changed the family name to Gadahn, after the ancient Hebrew warrior Gideon. Adam was born in Oregon and grew up homeschooled on an isolated goat farm near the little town of Hemet, California, where his Christian father made a living raising and butchering goats in a manner conforming to the Muslim version of the rules of kosher.
Apparently estranged from his environment, Adam was looking for something to fill the void inside from early adolescence onward, and first became a death metal cultist, reaching out to musicians and other fans via little magazines. He sometimes performed as a one-man band called "Aphasia" and wrote reviews for a 'zine, Xenocide.
When he was 16 Adam's parents agreed to let him leave their ranch and go live with his grandparents in Santa Ana, in Orange County. He got a job in a computer store and began cruising the internet, searching for the philosophy, teacher, or answer which would make him whole. At first he tried Christianity, but decided that Christians' "apocalyptic ramblings" were "paranoid."
The next year, 1995, he began studying Islam with the Islamic Society of Orange County.
In 1998 he moved to Pakistan and married an Afghan refugee. He was still in intermittent contact with his family.
In the fall of 2004, using the name "Azzam the American," Gadahn released a 75-minute video threatening the U.S. with terrorist attacks, which was broadcast by ABC News.
He's shown up in numerous al-Qaida films and videos since then, including an unmasked appearance on a video made public via the internet in which he denounced the U.S.'s conduct of the Iraq War. He's also served as a media advisor to Osama bin Laden, and is believed to have inspired a 2007 bin Laden video in which the al-Qaida chief refers to the American subprime mortgage crisis.
He was arrested today in Karachi, Pakistan by officers of that country's intelligence service, on the same day al-Qaida released his latest video, in which Gadahn urges Muslims in the U.S. armed forces to emulate Army Major Nidal Hasan, who opened fire in a crowded room at Fort Hood in Texas in November, killing 13, to protest America's policies in the Middle East.
Update: This gets curiouser and curiouser, and news of the apprehension of Adam Gadahn now seems to have been a case of mistaken identity.
The New York Times's latest revision of this story says: "American and Pakistani officials said the man arrested was Abu Yahya Mujahdeen Al-Adam, who was described as having been born in Pennsylvania and who was thought to be affiliated with the operations division of al Qaeda, commanding fighters in Afghanistan."
So somebody -- some reporter or military information officer somewhere -- got this Abu Yahya chelloveck mixed up with Gadahn.
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