A naturalized citizen, eh? You mean he wasn’t dissuaded from the jihad ideology by Big Macs and J-Lo? Here’s another one for the consideration of those who think that the lure of American materialism will in itself defeat the jihad. From AP, with thanks to Rebecca Bynum:
WASHINGTON – The U.S. military in Iraq is holding a man it believes to be the first American captured fighting for the Iraqi insurgency. Pentagon officials describe the man, who holds U.S. and Jordanian citizenship, as a senior associate of terrorist leader Abu Musab Zarqawi.
He was captured in a raid at his home in Iraq in late 2004, Matthew Waxman, the Pentagon’s deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, said in an interview Thursday.
Officials declined to provide his name or hometown or identify him other than to say he functioned as Zarqawi’s emissary to insurgent groups in several cities in Iraq.
Zarqawi, who has declared his allegiance to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network, is the most wanted man in Iraq, and is tied to numerous bombings and kidnappings since the U.S.-led invasion removed Saddam Hussein from power two years ago.
Defense officials also believe the captured American helped coordinate the movement of insurgents and money into Iraq, and provided support for kidnappings carried out by Zarqawi’s operatives, Waxman said.
“Weapons and bomb-making materials were in his residence at the time he was captured,” Waxman said. Several other insurgents were captured in the raid, conducted by U.S.-led coalition forces.
U.S. officials said Friday the man was born in Kuwait to Jordanian parents. He later moved to the United States and became a naturalized citizen, according to a U.S. official who discussed the case only on the condition of anonymity. The man lived in several places in the country over roughly 20 years, but officials declined to say precisely when he left or when he arrived in Iraq….