Dear As-Sahab: Please Take Away Adam Gadahn's Microphone

By Evan Kohlmann

Late yesterday, Al-Qaida's official media wing--the As-Sahab Media Foundation--released yet another meandering, half-baked video message from American Al-Qaida member Adam Gadahn, formerly of Los Angeles, California. Gadahn--who perhaps at best can be described as an arrogant, pasty-faced computer nerd--has nonetheless become a key spokesman for Al-Qaida over the past five years. Making his initial debut in October 2004, a masked and angry Gadahn cut a much more fearsome figure. Aside from the relatively silent "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh, most people had never seen a U.S.-born jihadi in the flesh before--and his words left little to the imagination. Awkwardly jabbing into the air with his chubby pale fingers, he insisted, “what took place on September 11 was but the opening salvo of the war against America and … Allah willing, the magnitude and ferocity of what is coming your way will make you forget all about September 11. … Allah willing, the streets of America will run red with blood … casualties will be too many to count, and the next wave of attacks may come at any moment.” We next saw Gadahn in September 2005, this time wearing something suspiciously reminiscent of a woman's veil. Ratcheting things up a notch, he swore revenge on his own hometown: “Yesterday, London and Madrid. Tomorrow, Los Angeles and Melbourne (Australia, God willing.”

With words like that, big things were obviously expected from Mr. Gadahn and a hoped-for wave of likeminded souls from within the U.S. who would rise up and follow his call. Yet, the scattered groups of fanatics who have been detained in Europe and North America in possession of Gadahn's videos seem to largely suffer from the same fatal flaws as Mr. Gadahn himself: they have an overdeveloped sense of grandeur, they lack any sense of humility, and they are often emotionally infantile. Meanwhile, Gadahn has turned into a bloated and bizarre media caricature of himself--the undisputed Rush Limbaugh of Al-Qaida. He now appears regularly on "Bin Laden TV", dispensing bits of personal wisdom about everything from the 9/11 attacks to the affairs of the Palestinians. His persistent threats against America no longer seem so prescient, and his eyebrow-raising ideological tangents into controversial Muslim issues would appear to be strongly inadvisable for Al-Qaida. With each new consecutive video he appears in, he only adds to the punchline and further dilutes the underlying seriousness of Al-Qaida's intentions.

Were Al-Qaida's leadership to read this, they could perhaps dismiss these criticisms by explaining it away as merely a "crusader" attempt to rain on Al-Qaida's parade, no matter who the messenger. Yet, for those who would defend Gadahn on this basis, there is a clear, recent example of an effective American mujahid who has appeared on video and who admittedly does have a certain distinct "Che Guevara"-style appeal. I speak here of "Abu Mansour al-Amriki", the erstwhile star of a recent propaganda video produced by the Shabaab al-Mujahideen Movement in Somalia. While Abu Mansour certainly displayed his own set of eccentricities--including rapping freestyle about Al-Qaida and terrorism--he fits much more closely into the mold of an Ibn-ul-Khattab or an Usama Bin Laden. Abu Mansour speaks softly, carefully, and deliberately. He offers deference to others, and in a tone that suggests coolness and confidence, not frothy rage. He is shown fighting in the field, hiding from the enemy, and without any sense of script or pretension. In a word, in contrast to the constantly posturing Gadahn, Abu Mansour appears genuine. Not the least of all, his incredible pronunciation of Arabic makes Adam Gadahn's Quranic recitation sound by comparison like someone banging trash cans together.

Thus, on behalf of all of us, this is an open appeal to As-Sahab to please take away Adam Gadahn's microphone. There has got to be someone more influential--or at least somewhat more interesting--to constantly parade around on camera.