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 American al Qaeda member Adam Gadahn, who faced treason charges in
the United States, was killed early this year in a strike on an al
Qaeda camp in Pakistan, near the Afghan border, U.S. officials said
on Thursday.
"He was highly important. He was the man on their media front line,"
said Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani author and expert on the Taliban and
al Qaeda.
"Given the success of ISIS in media and social media, he would have
been much needed, especially in communicating with English-speaking
audiences and on web sites and so on," he said, referring to Islamic
State.
Gadahn, for whom the United States had offered a reward of $1
million, was believed to be in his late 30s. Born in Oregon, he grew
up in California, converted to Islam at 17 and became a spokesman
and translator for al Qaeda.
 When the United States accused him of treason in 2006, he became the
first person to face such charges since the World War Two era,
according to the U.S. Justice Department.
Gadahn has been involved with al Qaeda's as-Sahab media wing and had
appeared in its videos wearing robes and a turban and warning the
United States it would face attacks if it did not heed al Qaeda
demands.
He also called for attacks on U.S. diplomats and on economic targets
in the West.
"He was the main man in charge of the al Qaeda narrative, so his
death will have an impact on the propaganda machine," said Amir
Rana, author of a book on militant groups in Pakistan.
U.S. officials said Gadahn was killed five days after a U.S. drone
strike in January targeting an al Qaeda compound in Pakistan
inadvertently killed an American and an Italian who had been held
hostage for years by the group.
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Gadahn was in another al Qaeda camp, they said.
Gadahn, born in a Jewish-Christian family, grew up on a goat ranch
outside Los Angeles, and moved to Pakistan after his conversion to
Islam. He was previously known as Adam Pearlman.
As one of a small nucleus of senior al Qaeda figures left in the
region, Gadahn was likely to have been involved in setting up the
group's South Asian wing, which analysts saw as a rebranding effort
in the face of Islamic State competition.
"Al Qaeda has been seen to be losing out to the IS over the last
year or so, so they need new ideas to at least keep step," said
Imtiaz Gul of the Center for Research and Security Studies.
"Presumably, Gadahn was part of these efforts."
(Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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