Adam Yahiye Gadahn (1 September 1978-January 2015) was a spokesman and media advisor for al-Qaeda from the United States. Also known as Azzam al-Amriki, Gadahn converted to Islam in 1995 and became a homegrown terrorist, and he became one of the faces of al-Qaeda. He was killed in a drone strike in January 2015.
Biography[]
Adam Yahiye Gadahn was born on 1 September 1978 in the United States state of Oregon to a Christian family; his grandfather Carl Pearlman was a Jewish-American who changed his last name to "Gadahn" in 1975 after the biblical warrior Gideon, and supported Israel. Adam Gadahn was raised a Protestant Christian, and was involved in the death metal community as an adolescent, and his relationship with his parents became strained. Gadahn converted to Islam at the age of 17 while living with his grandparents. In 1997 he was arrested for assaulting his former mentor Haitham Bundakji, who was nicknamed "Danny the Jew" for wearing western clothes and being friendly with Jews. Gadahn was in jail for two days but did not do his 40 hours of community service, and he fled to Pakistan in 1998. He married an Afghan refugee, and in March 2001, all contact with his family stopped. He claimed that he was a journalist in Karachi and Peshawar, but was actually working as a media propagandist for al-Qaeda.
Gadahn became a senior adviser to al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and an English translator, and was a media personality that represented the organization. He was believed to have been killed in Predator drone strikes in February, May, and September 2008, and was believed captured in March 2010, but he was still alive and at large.
In January 2015, Gadahn was killed in a drone strike by the United States in a counter-terrorist operation that was declassified by President Barack Obama on 23 April 2015, coinciding with the news of the deaths of hostages Warren Weinstein and Giovanni Lo Porto in special operations in the same area.