[$tinkle]

yahoo-lu-lu-lu!:

LOS ANGELES - The charge of treason was used for the first time in the United States' war on terrorism Wednesday, filed against a California man who appeared in propaganda videos for al-Qaida.

Adam Yehiye Gadahn, 28, could be sentenced to death if convicted of the charge, which has been used only a few dozen times in U.S. history and not at all since the World War II era. He also was indicted on a charge of providing material support to terrorists.

Gadahn "knowingly adhered to an enemy of the United States, namely, al-Qaida, and gave al-Qaida aid and comfort ... with intent to betray the United States," according to the indictment, handed up by an Orange County grand jury.

The suspected al-Qaida operative has been sought by the
FBI since 2004. Based on the indictment, the FBI added Gadahn to its list of most wanted terrorists and offered a $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction.

Gadahn, who is believed to be in or near Pakistan, is suspected of having attended the terrorist group's training camps in Pakistan and serving as one of its translators. He has become known by his nom de guerre, Azzam al-Amriki, or "Azzam the American."

Gadahn appeared last month in a 48-minute video along with al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, calling on his countrymen to convert to Islam and for U.S. soldiers to switch sides in the
Iraq and Afghan wars.

It was the second time he appeared in the same video with al-Zawahri. In a July 7 video marking the one-year anniversary of the terror attack on London commuters, Gadahn appeared briefly, saying no Muslim should "shed tears" for Westerners killed by al-Qaida attacks.

Beyond that, authorities believe he is the masked figure who appeared in two previous videos from al-Qaida, one given to ABC television in 2004 and another a few days before the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

According to the indictment, Gadahn announced in the 2004 video that he had joined al-Qaida, "a movement waging war on America and killing large numbers of Americans."

"Fighting and defeating America is our first priority," he said, according to the indictment. "... The streets of America shall run red with blood."

The treason charge carries penalties ranging from a five-year prison sentence to the death penalty, while the charge of providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization carries a possible 15-year sentence.

Raised in Southern California on a Riverside goat farm, Gadahn converted to Islam and worshipped at the Islamic Society of Orange County in 1997 before being expelled for attacking one of its leaders.

His mother last spoke to him by phone in March 2001. At the time he was in Pakistan, working at a newspaper, and his wife was getting ready to have a child.

Gadahn's aunt, Nancy Pearlman, declined to comment.

 

[valve bouncer]

"Fighting and defeating America is our first priority," he said, according to the indictment. "... The streets of America shall run red with blood."

This rhetoric is just getting old. May I suggest;
- Garnish the street lamps with viscera
- Festoon the boulevards with gore
- Garland the parks with intestines

 

[DaveW]

And
"little pig
Little pig!
Let me in...... Osama wants to finger your entrails!"

 

[valve bouncer]

And
"little pig
Little pig!
Let me in...... Osama wants to finger your entrails!"

Sh*t, how could I forget entrails. I'm slipping.

 

[Transcend]

Remember, it is now illegal to appear in videos that oppose the views of the US government.

 

[rooftest]

When we elect Saddam president, he can be in his cabinet - another true hero.

 

[ohio]

Can you commit treason if we're not at war?

 

[chicodude]

Remember, it is now illegal to appear in videos that oppose the views of the US government.

I see bush's hitler mustache is coming in nicely

 

[MMike]

"Fighting and defeating America is our first priority," he said, according to the indictment. "... The streets of America shall run red with blood."

This rhetoric is just getting old. May I suggest;
- Garnish the street lamps with viscera
- Festoon the boulevards with gore
- Garland the parks with intestines

Festoon.....heh heh....did you get out the thesaurus, or did you get that one on your own? I've always liked that word, but never think t o use it. I'm going to make an effort to use it at work today. Festoon....

 

[valve bouncer]

Festoon.....heh heh....did you get out the thesaurus, or did you get that one on your own? I've always liked that word, but never think t o use it. I'm going to make an effort to use it at work today. Festoon....

Daniel Day Lewis' chracter from Gangs of New York. Stuck in my memory

Bill: [taps his glass eye with a knife] I know your works. You are neither cold nor hot. So because you are lukewarm, I will spew you out of my mouth. You can build your filthy world without me. I took the father. Now I'll take the son. You tell young Vallon I'm gonna paint Paradise Square with his blood. Two coats. I'll festoon my bedchamber with his guts. As for you, Mr. Tammany-f*cking-Hall, you come down to the Points again, and you'll be dispatched by my own hand. Get back to your celebration and let me eat in peace.

 

[Westy]

I remember pre 9-11 watching a TV show called Worlds Most Dangerous Places, or something like that. Anyone else watch it? The host would go into African civil wars, hung with the Tamil Tigers etc. One show was in Afghanistan and he interviewed an American who was in in the "terrorist training camps", he was actually training to fight with the Taliban. I guess a year later or so they interviewed him back in the States after he got his leg blown off. I wonder if that dude got hauled off to Gitmo.

 

[syadasti]

Adam Yehiye Gadahn, 28, could be sentenced to death if convicted of the charge, which has been used only a few dozen times in U.S. history and not at all since the World War II era. He also was indicted on a charge of providing material support to terrorists.

Guess they forgot the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953 - also victims of fear and propaganda. Julius was a minor player compared to spies at Los Alamos(Fuchs and Hall) and Maclean(British KGB). Ethel played no significant role other than a wife really. They were the dominos that started the dark times of Joseph McCarthy.

 

[$tinkle]

Guess they forgot the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953 - also victims of fear and propaganda. Julius was a minor player compared to spies at Los Alamos(Fuchs and Hall) and Maclean(British KGB). Ethel played no significant role other than a wife really. They were the dominos that started the dark times of Joseph McCarthy.

execution in '53, yes.
conviction in '51, covering crimes in the prev years. i think that's where the "WWII era" loosely fits in.

 

[syadasti]

It was post WWII, early cold war era I guess (they were atomic spies). Russia was our ally in WWII, not our enemy.

 

[Secret Squirrel]

It was post WWII, early cold war era I guess (they were atomic spies). Russia was our ally in WWII, not our enemy.

Correction....they were "less bad"

 

[$tinkle]

Russia was our ally in WWII, not our enemy.

don't think that tidbit matters, as giving secrets relating to nat'l defense to a foreign gov't is sufficient for indictment.

 

[syadasti]

They were really on the border of the two periods when the violations took place but they were on trial and executed in the Cold War. Its one of the many causes for the Cold War.

"From Cold War"
Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union resumed after World War II ended in 1945. They escalated in 1945–1947. Historians differ, but the usual starting year is 1947 for the Cold War that lasted until the fall of the Berlin Wall (Nov 11, 1989) or the Collapse of the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991

...

"From Rosenbergs"
Since the end of the Cold War, the Russian government has released documentation that demonstrates that Julius Rosenberg was providing secret information to the NKVD. Alexander Feklisov has stated in a memoir and in many interviews that he was Julius Rosenberg's control agent, and met Julius on over 50 occasions over a three year period beginning in 1943.

In any case, the Rosenbergs weren't big fish doing important things. I don't think Gadahn is either, but it makes for good US propaganda in both cases.