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Al-Qaeda 'PR' up for treason
11/10/2006 23:26 - (SA)
Washington - A California-born convert to
Islam who has appeared in al-Qaeda videos became on Wednesday
the first American charged with treason since the WW2-era, a US justice department official said.
Adam Gadahn, 28, who is believed to be overseas and is not
in US custody, was accused of treason - which carries a
maximum punishment of death - and providing material support for
a terrorist group, the official said.
Gadahn, also known on the videos as Azzam the American, has
been involved in a propaganda campaign of the Islamic militant
group, sources familiar with the case said. Some of the videos
have threatened attacks against the United States. Training camps
The FBI has sought to question Gadahn since May 2004.
It has said that Gadahn attended al-Qaeda training
camps in Afghanistan, that he has been associated with
al-Qaeda's leaders and that he has done translations for al-Qaeda.
His last video was posted on a website on September 2.
"If the Zionist crusader missionaries of hate and
counter-Islam consultants like ... the crusader and chief
George W Bush were to abandon their unbelief and repent and
enter into the light of Islam and turn their swords against the
enemies of God, it would be accepted of them and they would be
our brothers in Islam," Gadahn said in English.
There were a number of treason cases after WW2 - including a trial in 1952 - legal experts said. In one of the
cases, an American woman, known as "Tokyo Rose," was convicted
of treason and later pardoned. She died in Chicago last month.
- Reuters
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