Earlier today I posted a reprint of an Associated Press article about the capture of Adam Gadahn, a man who is believed to be an American-born spokesman for Al Qaida.
Now reports are surfacing that perhaps it is not Gadahn in captivity after all. According to The New York Times:
An operative of Al Qaeda believed to be an American was arrested in the sprawling southern city of Karachi in recent days by Pakistani security officials, Pakistani officials said Sunday.
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.
One American official briefed on the arrest described the operative in custody as fair-skinned and someone who spoke both English and Pashto.
Little else was known about him, American officials said, and it was not immediately clear that American officials were involved in the arrest. There was no confirmation that the arrested man was in fact an American.
Initial reports seemed to have confused him with Adam Gadahn, a California native who has been a Qaeda spokesman and often appears on videos calling for strikes against targets in the United States.
Senior administration officials said on Sunday that they did not believe the arrest was of Mr. Gadahn. For hours, information was difficult to confirm from Pakistan. President Obama was briefed on news reports of the arrest, but later learned they were most likely not correct.
I would like to add a personal thought. I have always said I would give credit when credit was due, and it certainly seems that something is going on in Pakistan that is worthy of kudos. I do not know how much influence American policy has over recent captures and killings of Al Qaida operatives in the Middle East, but it is entirely possible that there has been some kind of communication or arrangement made between Washington and Pakistan. If this is the case, kudos to those involved. I would like to believe this is the case, and would gladly congratulate President Obama if his influence were directly responsible for the aforementioned events.
2 comments:
I would like to pose another thought. The reason that Pakistan (and most other countries with internal extremist problems) are now having to "go it alone" due to the appeasement nature of this administration and that those countries are now understanding that America will not help them so they are now doing their own heavy lifting instead of us providing money, militay, intelligence aid as every other Administration has.
You are correct, it is a good thing that Pakistan is stepping up. They still have issues, but things are improving.
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