By Jim Popkin, NBC News Senior Investigative Producer
Adam Gadahn, the former Californian heavy-metal headbanger turned al-Qaida mouthpiece, has vexed American officials for four years with his bombastic, and sometimes threatening, video taunts. But now U.S. officials have launched an aggressive new media campaign to try to smoke him out. In ads that have been running on more than 30 radio stations in Afghanistan, the FBI and State Department ask for the public’s help in locating Gadahn--and in the process seem to taunt the 29-year-old.
The radio spots, obtained by NBC News, begin by stating: “Being a man means fighting for what is right, defending your family, your community and your country. Adam Yahiye Gadahn is not a man.”
Produced in Dari and Pashtu, languages spoken along the border with Pakistan, the ads continue: “Born American, he betrayed not only his family and his community but also his country. There is no way to trust someone who is willing to betray the very land they were born on. Now he is committing more atrocities against Afghanistan. Bring a traitor to justice; stop his atrocities from reaching you and your family."
The radio ads, complete with music, end by asking locals with information on Gadahn’s whereabouts to contact the U.S. Embassy’s Rewards for Justice office in Kabul. “If the information you provide leads to his capture, you may be entitled to a reward. For your safety, your call will be confidential,” the ads state.
Mike Darmiento is the Assistant Director of the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, and oversees the Rewards for Justice program. NBC News spoke to Darmiento in his spacious office in Rosslyn, Va. He explained that, with all the rumors swirling around that Gadahn may have been killed by a Predator attack in February in North Waziristan, it was time to ferret out the truth.
"We had heard information that possibly he had been killed back in February. And we just decided it's time to really push this some more to see if we can develop some additional information and try to locate him once and for all," Darmiento said.
The U.S. Rewards for Justice program also has released wanted posters of Gadahn, and matchbooks emblazoned with his face that are being distributed in Afghanistan. Federal prosecutors indicted Gadahn for treason and for providing material support to al-Qaida in 2006, and the Rewards for Justice program is offering a reward of $1 million for information that leads to his arrest.
Video Mouthpiece:
In recent years, Gadahn has become the face of al-Qaida for Western audiences. He has appeared in seven al-Qaida propaganda tapes since October 22, 2004, according to Ben Venzke of IntelCenter, but has not been seen or heard from since January 6 of this year. That’s when he released a videotape that threatened President Bush with “bombs and booby traps” during a visit to the Middle East, and ripped up his U.S. passport on camera and denounced his U.S. citizenship.
Darmiento said that, despite the gap in video appearances, he has made no judgments on Gadahn’s whereabouts. “It wouldn’t surprise me if he went underground. It also wouldn’t surprise me if he was killed,” he said.
Decoding the radio ads’ “not a man” language:
NBC News shared the new radio ads with several terrorism experts, for their read on the psychology behind the language. Roger Cressey, the NBC News terrorism analyst and former White House terrorism official, said the ads attempt to counteract Pashtun traditions. "Calling out his manhood is an interesting approach and an attempt to appeal to the Afghan sense of honor,” Cressey said. “In effect, they're saying there is a ‘stranger among us’ and he's bringing dishonor and danger to the community. However, the likelihood of anyone in the tribal areas giving up Gadahn is slim to none."
Claudio Franco is an enterprising journalist and senior investigator who works for the NEFA Foundation, a non-profit organization created after the 9-11 attacks that “strives to prevent future tragedies in the U.S. and abroad by exposing those responsible for planning, funding and executing terrorist activities,” as its website explains.
[Franco has spent countless months in Afghanistan reporting on local jihadists and, with the NEFA Foundation, shared video with NBC last year that he shot inside a secret, underground Taliban bomb factory.]
He agreed that the language in the ads is meant to play on the local concepts of honor and homeland, and that the U.S. campaign will likely be somewhat effective. “They are trying to raise doubts about his sincerity (and his worth) as a human being; they are questioning whether he’s worth being hosted and protected on the basis of the ‘Pasthunwali,’ the unwritten code that rules daily life in the [tribal] areas,” Franco said. “More in detail, what they are inferring is the following: Adam Gadahn has betrayed the country where he was born. Hence, is he worthy of attention and trust? Or is he liable to betray again?”
But Franco said the U.S. effort doesn’t seem to take into consideration the power of religion. “Islam is of paramount importance in this context,” Franco said. “Adam Gadahn betrayed in the name of, and for the sake of, Islam. He found the true faith and went for it, sacrificing everything on the path of religion. Islam is stronger than anything in the tribal areas,” Franco said, adding that many true believers will continue to protect Gadahn if they believe he betrayed his own country in the name of Islam.
The State Department’s Mike Darmiento said the goal of the new program is, of course, to bring Gadahn to justice or find conclusive proof of his death. But it also will serve to publicize the Rewards for Justice program in the region, he said, which could help the U.S. prevent other acts of terror in the future. “One of the best parts of the program is that it offers people the opportunity to provide information that prevents an actual terrorist act that is in planning,” Darmiento said. “So just the exposure to the rewards program to people in that region may allow us to develop other information. Not to mention that we may be get lucky and get information on Adam Gadahn."
