US: American al-Qaeda member says worldwide attacks 'legitimate'
14 Jun 2009 12:22 AM
DUBAI, June 13 AFP - An American member of al-Qaeda has urged Islamist militants to attack Zionist and Western interests worldwide.
"The Zio-Crusader interests everywhere are legitimate targets for us," said Adam Gadahn, who is also known as Azzam the American, in a videotape provided by the US-based SITE Intelligence Group, which said it was posted on Islamist websites on Saturday.
"By striking them, we aggravate the enemy's wounds, bleed its crumbling economy, and reduce the load on our brothers the mujahedeen (holy warriors)," said Gadahn, who spoke in Arabic for the first time, in the message titled "Let's Continue Our Jihad and Sacrifice" and addressed to the Palestinians.
"To describe the targeting of these interests outside Palestine as illegitimate is a mistake that cannot be accepted by a reasonable Muslim," said the bearded Gadahn, who is listed among the most wanted by the United States, with a reward of up to $US1 million ($A1.22 million) for information leading to his capture.
In October 2006 he became the first person to be charged in the United States with treason since the World War II era. The charge carries a minimum of five years in prison on conviction and a maximum penalty of death.
Gadahn has appeared in several videotapes for al-Qaeda since 2004, praising the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington and threatening new terror onslaughts.
He was born in 1978 in southern California, the son of a 1960s Jewish rock musician who later converted to Christianity and became a rural goat farmer.
His conversion to Islam came after he attended the Islamic Centre of Orange County, California, where he is believed to have come under the influence of two foreign-born Islamist radicals.
Gadahn is believed to have left California for Karachi in 1998 and gradually lost contact with relatives in the United States.
