The head of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles said Sunday that his organization welcomed the arrest of Adam Gadahn, a Riverside County native who appeared in videos defending Al Qaeda, including the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
“We welcome the arrest,” said Salam Marayati, who heads the council in Los Angeles. “This
is one step closer to defeating Al Qaeda and defeating the mentality of death
and despair, which is alien to Islam.”
Marayati said Gadahn
ended up under the influence of the wrong Muslims and had used the religion to
make political statements for Al Qaeda. “I don’t think that what he
has been saying has any merit in Islam,” he said. “It is a political ploy.”
Gadahn is wanted in the U.S. for
treason. He became a Muslim after he moved to Orange County.
[Updated at 2 p.m.: Gadahn’s aunt, Nancy Pearlman, who is on the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees, declined to answer any questions about Gadahn.
Told about the arrest, she said, “You know more than I do.”]
Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan — Security forces in the southern
port city of Karachi have arrested Adam Gadahn, a Southern California
native who became a top propagandist for Al Qaeda and is wanted by the
U.S. on treason charges, Pakistani intelligence sources in Karachi said
Sunday.The
capture of Gadahn becomes the starkest signal yet that Pakistan has
decided to ratchet up its cooperation with the U.S. in hunting down
Islamic militants. In the last two months, Pakistani security forces
have seized several top Afghan Taliban commanders, including the
insurgency’s second in command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.
Read more about the reported arrest of Adam Gadahn in this story from L.A. Times staff writer Alex Rodriguez.
[Updated at 8:30 p.m.: As of late Sunday, U.S. officials said
the reports could not be confirmed. American intelligence agencies
spent the day sorting out conflicting reports on the purported arrest
of Adam Gadahn of Riverside. By late Sunday night, U.S. officials said
the picture remained unclear.
“In terms of who may have been arrested, the Pakistani rumor mill
belched out three very different possibilities in about six hours,” one
U.S. official said. “That should tell you something right there. It’s
by no means clear who, if anyone, the Pakistanis may have captured.”]
— Anna Gorman