Al-Qaeda video tape evidence indicts “Azzam the American” but not bin Laden

October 13, 2006 – According to Associated Press writer Jeremiah Marquez in his October 11, 2006 article, U.S. Indicts American in al-Qaeda Video, ‘the charge of treason was used for the first time in the United States’ war on terrorism Wednesday, filed against a California man who appeared in propaganda videos for al-Qaeda.’

An Internet search of this article title reveals that virtually every media outlet in the United States picked up this story by either reprinting the Associated Press article or creating another version of the same content.

Indicted is a 28-year-old California native named Adam Gadahn. The indictment of treason was handed up by a federal grand jury in Santa Ana, California. In the indictment it is alleged that Gadahn, by his appearing in videos promoting al-Qaeda, “gave al Qaeda aid and comfort…with intent to betray the United States”.

The indictment goes on to say that Gadahn, who has now become known as Azzam al-Amriki, ‘announced in a 2004 video that he joined al-Qaeda’. The FBI says that it has considered Gadahn an al-Qaeda operative since 2004.