From the OC to al Qaeda.

July 8, 2006 8:11 AM

From the OC to al Qaeda. Meet Adam Gadahn, former Southern California metal-head with a messy bedroom, current al Qaeda propaganda chief. Once a Santa Ana rocker from a prominent Jewish family, "Azzam the American" appeared yesterday in a video linking the terror group to the London bombings.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese (24 comments total)

Maybe he needs, a Buttplug Of Liberty !

See also:

The use and practice of extraordinary enema renditions. and enemas as interrogation tools

It's a shitty job, butt nothings to good for freedom! Right?
posted by Unregistered User at 8:23 AM on July 8, 2006

I think this is further evidence that al Qaeda (and other radical Islamic groups) is nothing more than a cult... It attracts disaffected and alienated young men (mostly) and exploits them to their own devious ends...

That isn't religion... that isn't politics... that's a cult...

If this guy didn't hook up with al Qaeda, he would have ended up in Waco or Jonestown or something similar...

and before anyone says it, not all alienated youths join cults, otherwise we would all be in one (and maybe we all are and are just in denial) but cults and the like feed off the most succeptible ones...

not sayin', I'm just sayin'...
posted by WhipSmart at 8:42 AM on July 8, 2006

Psychiatrist and former CIA case officer Marc Sageman has some very useful observations on what draws disaffected young men into Islamist terror organizations.
posted by enrevanche at 8:50 AM on July 8, 2006

OC isn't overrun with screwed-up kids or anything, but there are far more than one would suspect given the county's image. Some of the screwed-up ones turn out to be fairly spectacular cases, too. It's almost as if American affluence doesn't fix everything. (Shocking, I know.)
posted by scaryblackdeath at 8:54 AM on July 8, 2006

Crazy people drawn to terrorist death cult! News at 11!
posted by Artw at 9:02 AM on July 8, 2006

Least. Subtle. Mole. Evah.
posted by imperium at 9:10 AM on July 8, 2006

Interesting artcicle enrevanche.
posted by jouke at 9:14 AM on July 8, 2006

Ah, imperium, that made me chuckle. This guy is probably not privvy to the important info.
posted by melt away at 9:25 AM on July 8, 2006

Clearly we need more racial profiling at airports!
posted by delmoi at 10:39 AM on July 8, 2006

Or less brown people using them.
posted by econous at 10:42 AM on July 8, 2006

That's so punk-rock.
posted by bardic at 10:52 AM on July 8, 2006

enrevanche, that's a fantastic link.
posted by dhartung at 11:09 AM on July 8, 2006

LSD is a hell of a drug.
posted by illovich at 11:17 AM on July 8, 2006

Psychiatrist and former CIA case officer Marc Sageman has some very useful observations on what draws disaffected young men into Islamist terror organizations.

Tiny penises? An inability to get girls?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 11:23 AM on July 8, 2006

I blame Bush.
posted by loquacious at 11:43 AM on July 8, 2006

Psychiatrist and former CIA case officer Marc Sageman has some very useful observations on what draws disaffected young men into Islamist terror organizations:

"The (1996) fatwa clearly articulated the new goals of this movement, which were to get the U.S. out of the Middle East so they would be free to overthrow the Saudi monarchy or the Egyptian regime and establish a Salafi state. This remains their goal and is why 9-11 happened. This is why the embassy bombing happened. [...] This is all why I put the start of the threat against us at 1996."


Uh, what about the 1993 WTC bombing?
posted by kid ichorous at 12:43 PM on July 8, 2006

The article claims Adam is al Qaeda's propoganda "chief." How do they know this?
posted by b_thinky at 11:15 PM on July 8, 2006

More from Sageman.
posted by russilwvong at 11:48 PM on July 8, 2006

From the interview with Gadahn: OK, how do you respond to the Muslim clerics and governments around the world who say that you are a small fringe group of extremists--

Exactly.
posted by russilwvong at 12:01 AM on July 9, 2006

What was the 'messy bedroom' link supposed to be?
posted by mediareport at 9:28 AM on July 9, 2006

Here are some cool links about the musical career of Azzam the American's dad, Phil Pearlman. The dad never got much record sales, but he released a lot of underground psych material in the late 1960s, including Beat of the Earth and Relatively Clean Rivers, as well as a stint in the surf band Phil 'n' the Flakes.

By the way, I have a theory about John Walker Lindh/Azzam the American. Note how Azzam/Adam Gadahn's father was a Jewish convert to Christianity during the Jesus Freak era of the 1960s. Similarly, I believe John Walker's mom dabbled in Buddhism in the 1960s. I don't think that this is a bad thing, but I believe that their experiences as religious "seekers" during the 1960s would make it very difficult for them to criticize their kid's eventual involvement with Islam.
posted by jonp72 at 11:33 AM on July 9, 2006

What was the 'messy bedroom' link supposed to be?

Here's the Google cache: "I eschewed personal cleanliness and let my room reach an unbelievable state of disarray."
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 4:37 PM on July 9, 2006

Thanks, Kraftmatic. Fascinating.

The most extreme fanatics are often converts. (Indeed, Osama bin Laden may be considered to fall into this pattern--he used to be a rich playboy before rediscovering Islam.)
posted by russilwvong at 9:11 PM on July 9, 2006

The most extreme fanatics are often converts. (Indeed, Osama bin Laden may be considered to fall into this pattern--he used to be a rich playboy before rediscovering Islam.)

Yep--and Bush was a heavy-drinking (and allegedly coke-snorting) frat boy before he found Jesus. Funny how that works with some folks spending their whole lives seemingly swinging from one extreme to the other. Almost like a symptom of some kind of personality disorder, rather than a reflection of any real, deeply held ideological convictions.
posted by saulgoodman at 1:17 PM on July 10, 2006