Pakistan Claims to Have Arrested Adam Gadahn

Helen Kennedy
The New York Daily News
March 7, 2010

Pakistani officials say they’ve nabbed Adam Gadahn, the treasonous Californian Al Qaeda leader who has long been on Washington’s Most Wanted list.

It would be a huge victory in the battle against the terror network if true, but high level US officials in Washington could not immediately confirm the arrest.

The Associated Press and several Pakistani outlets quoted Pakistani officials confirming the arrest of Osama bin Laden’s American mouthpiece. And The Dawn, Karachi’s English-language paper, ran a photo of a man said to be Gadahn being taken away with a bag on his head.

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U.S.-Born al Qaeda Arrest News Incorrect

Confusion Over Militant's Identity Sparked Reports of Gadahn Arrest; Some Media Say It is Another U.S.-Born Terrorist

CBS News
March 10, 2010

An "important Taliban militant" was arrested today in Pakistan. But that is where the confusion started.

Earlier it was reported by Pakistani media that intelligence agents had arrested Adam Gadahn, the American-born spokesman for al Qaeda, in an operation in the southern city of Karachi.

It was further reported by the Associated Press and Reuters that Gadahn had been arrested, sourcing security officials.

CBS News was told by sources in the Pakistan government that it was Gadahn, even after U.S. officials refused to confirm it was the California native for whom a $1 million reward has been posted.

Now, CBS News' Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad writes that earlier reports the detained individual was Gadahn proved false. According to a Pakistan security official who spoke with CBS News on condition of anonymity, the arrested individual is in fact "a Taliban militant leader who is known as Abu Yahya."

The official said evidence compiled from an interrogation of the suspect and information exchanged with U.S. officials verified the man's identify.

The reassessment only added to the confusion surrounding the arrest of a man earlier described by other unnamed Pakistani security officials as Gadahn.

"In the light of our latest information, I can say, this is not looking like Gadahn. But it is still the arrest of an important Taliban militant," said the Pakistani security official who spoke to CBS News late Sunday.

The New York Times, sourcing American and Pakistani officials, reports that the man arrested was Abu Yahya Mujahdeen Al-Adam, and describes him as an al Qaeda commander who was born in Pennsylvania.

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