Jane's - "The Quiet American: Tracing the Whereabouts of Adam Gadahn"

By Evan Kohlmann

In the wake of my CTBlog post from last month, the editors at Jane's Intelligence Review (JIR) asked me to write a piece on the shadowy whereabouts of American Al-Qaida spokesman Adam Gadahn. In the piece, I have dug deeper into Gadahn's early days in Southern California -- and I also address one of the most hotly debated questions of all regarding Gadahn: his ultimate usefulness as an Al-Qaida terrorist recruiter. Excerpt below:

"...Gadahn's fiery enthusiasm and vitriol are naturally unsettling. Yet, as his role as an anchor and commentator for Al-Qaeda grew, some Western analysts have expressed scepticism over his usefulness as a terrorist recruiter. One such observer - former CIA officer Marc Sageman - has dismissed him as little more than an irritant: 'I haven't seen evidence of anyone being inspired when they see him… If he was a child, it'd be cute.' It would seem the pundits were a bit hasty in writing off Gadahn so quickly. Western analysts assumed that - through Gadahn - Al-Qaeda was seeking to reach a relatively wide, diverse audience of prospective recruits living in the West. To the contrary, Gadahn’s appeal was much more narrowly focused on people like himself - a tiny minority of marginalised social outcasts who are reasonably educated and intelligent, but are lacking in personal direction. To this group, Gadahn is no pompous clown, but an inspiring example of how anyone who is dedicated enough to the cause can reach the highest levels of Al-Qaeda. The proof of Gadahn's ideological influence over fellow outcasts - particularly English speakers with little grasp of Arabic - has become increasingly glaring. Al-Qaeda video recordings of Adam Gadahn have been seized as evidence in virtually every home-grown terrorism case investigated by law enforcement in the United Kingdom since 2006..."

The complete article is available now on Jane's Intelligence Review, which I should note is available only to paid subscribers.

See also: Where's the Beef? Mystery Grows Surrounding Whereabouts of Adam Gadahn

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