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US kills American al-Qaeda propagandist, accidentally kills American hostage in drone strikes

Apr 23, 2015 12:48 pm By Robert Spencer

gadahnGadahn has been killed before, and given what the killing of Weinstein reveals about the inaccuracy of the Obama Administration’s intel, don’t be surprised if Gadahn, a self-described “revolting geek of mass proportions,” pops up again. “Warren Weinstein, Adam Gadahn Killed in U.S. Drone Strikes,” by Jim Miklaszewski, Robert Windrem and Tracy Connor, NBC News, April 23, 2015:

American aid worker and al Qaeda captive Warren Weinstein was accidentally killed in a CIA drone strike, along with an Italian hostage and a terror leader who was a U.S. citizen, officials said Thursday.

A separate strike killed Adam Gadahn, an American who became a prominent propagandist for al Qaeda, was close to Osama bin Laden and had a $1 million bounty on his head for treason, officials said.

The deaths bring to seven the number of Americans killed in drone strikes, six of them inadvertently.

The White House said it was unaware that the Americans and the Italian, Giovanni Lo Porto, were present at the compounds, which were hit on Jan. 14 and Jan. 19 near the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. President Barack Obama apologized to the hostages’ families and said he took full responsibility as commander in chief.

“As a husband and as a father, I cannot begin to imagine the anguish the Weinstein and Lo Porto families are enduring today,” Obama said. “I know there is nothing I can ever say or do to ease their heartache.”

Weinstein, 73, was taken hostage in 2011, four days before his seven-year stint with the U.S. Agency for International Development was due to end. Lo Porto was abducted in 2012, soon after arriving in Pakistan to do humanitarian work.

The American, a grandfather from Maryland, had made several video appeals asking Obama to negotiate his release as his health deteriorated.

Weinstein’s widow, Elaine, said the family is “devastated” and wished the U.S. and Pakistani governments “with the power to take action and secure his release would have done everything possible to do so.”

“There are no words to do justice to the disappointment and heartbreak we are going through,” she said, adding that the family is anxious for the results of the U.S. investigation into the operation.

The hostages were “hidden” at an al Qaeda compound unbeknownst to CIA officials who ordered the drone strike after surveillance, Obama said. The intelligence community recently determined that both men had been killed, along with Ahmed Farouq, an American who was an al Qaeda leader.

The second strike killed Gadahn, who was also known as Adam Pearlman and by the nom de guerre Azzam al-Amriki.

Gadahn was born in California and later became an al Qaeda translator. The 36-year-old’s profile rose after the death of bin Laden, when it was discovered he regularly corresponded with the terror boss. The State Department had offered a $1 million reward for information leading to his capture.

Gadahn was seen by some al Qaeda followers to lack religious credibility and battlefield experience. ISIS said in its December edition of Dabiq, its online propaganda magazine, that al Qaeda was never the same after Ayman al-Zawahri and Gadahn took over….

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Filed Under: American jihadis, Barack Obama, converts to Islam, Featured, United States Tagged With: Adam Gadahn, Warren Weinstein


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Comments

  1. Don McKellar says

    Apr 23, 2015 at 1:15 pm

    When it comes to the Obama regime, those moslems need a whole lot of killin’ before they’ll stay down! You can take Baghdad Barry’s word on that!

  2. William says

    Apr 23, 2015 at 2:25 pm

    CIA ordered the drone strikes? Ordering air strikes? In a foreign country? I must be naive, from another time. They aren’t even denying involvement anymore, like the old days. The CIA is overtly carrying out warfare in another country? The CIA didn’t know hostages were being hidden? I am very leery about anything they are involved in. They could have known hostages were there, but decided to turn a blind eye. After all, who is ever held accountable in the CIA? Everything they do is in secrecy. There is no way to hold anyone accountable. This government is rotten through and through.

  3. Champ says

    Apr 23, 2015 at 4:05 pm

    Everytime obama opens his mouth…another lie spills out. He is a snake with a divided tongue.

    • Alissa says

      Apr 23, 2015 at 6:02 pm

      We better hope and pray that the US doesn’t vote in muslima clinton (I refuse to capitalize) or it will be more of the same.

  4. rev g says

    Apr 23, 2015 at 4:31 pm

    This happened in January! It took them quite a while to fess up, huh? Hard to spin this stuff I guess. Most likely the info trickled its way as rumor to some reporter who showed his hand when seeking verification of the story, forcing the White House into damage control.

  5. duh_swami says

    Apr 23, 2015 at 4:40 pm

    I won’t miss Pearlman, but he was an American citizen who had a right to due precess. He didn’t get it and neither did Awlaki, or his 16 year old son…That doesn’t concern some people, but it does matter to me…

    • rev g says

      Apr 23, 2015 at 6:03 pm

      I agree. Gadahn was targeted, he was not slain in the course of being apprehended or during the commission of some atrocity, he was targeted. He was deemed unworthy of due process, by a potus who has shown utter disdain for the restraints our Constitution places upon his office. If we the people were to similarly act as judge, jury, and executioner regarding potus’ crimes, I am sure he would not be amused.

  6. shortfattexan says

    Apr 23, 2015 at 4:45 pm

    Still waiting for the howls of outrage from American liberal feminists…

  7. Kepha says

    Apr 23, 2015 at 4:56 pm

    My heart goes out to the families of the two hostages.

    However, I will not spare a tear for the late Adam Pearlman. He was a traitor pure and simple, and part of an organization that warred on the USA.

    Due process is all very well and good. But, if a shooter is in your local school building out to get the staff and students, but a police officer gets an opportunity to make a clear head shot which will not endanger anyone else but the shooter, I hope the cop will take his chance–and I hope, in such a situation, that the officer in question be placed on the short list for promotion or honors. Better one miscreant be denied a day in court due to dying in pursuit of his crime rather than a roomful of kids and their teacher be shot for the sake of the bum’s fifteen minutes of notoriety.

    Sure, had Adam Pearlman been apprehended by either American or cooperating forces, he should not have been dropped out of a helicopter, but should have been brought to trial. However, I’m sure he knew what he was doing when he decided to take what I understand to be his family’s radical tradition a step or two farther, join al-Qaida, and then go where he would actually be in harm’s way.

    Rest in pieces, Adam.

  8. Clay says

    Apr 23, 2015 at 10:30 pm

    Is this a war or a law enforcement issue. To me this is a war. It is a shame but things like this happen. War is messy. I don’t like President Obama. I think he is a very foolish man. The drone strikes are one of the only have way intelligent things he does to fight the Islamist. It would be nice if he captured a few, sent them to Gitmo and questioned them, but that is not going to happen.

    We as a country are going to have to man up. People are going to get killed that shouldn’t. That is war. Complaining about a couple of hostages killed by mistake only encourages the Islamist. It give them the feeling of superiority over us.

    Scouts Out

    • rev g says

      Apr 24, 2015 at 9:02 am

      Redefining things to skirt legality issues…yep, Obama is great at it. That doesn’t make it right.

      • Clay says

        Apr 24, 2015 at 5:19 pm

        War and law enforcement are two different things all together. We are not going to win treating the Islamist like criminals who have rights. You win by being the aggressor. By treating the Islamist no matter who they are as the enemy. You have to accept losses.

        The Americans who were fighting with Al Qaeda have no rights. They are enemy combatants. If we capture them they should be tried for treason. I feel bad for the hostages and their families, but sometimes you lose.

        President Obama does have a problem. He can’t decide if we are fighting a war or not. He is a hypocrite, but we should not complain just because he did it. Sometimes he does the right thing despite himself.

        As far as dealing with the deaths of the hostages he should have informed the families, given them his condolences and left it at that.

        That is how you fight a war.

        • rev g says

          Apr 24, 2015 at 9:18 pm

          No war here. Even in war, there are legalities.

  9. Prinz Eugen says

    Apr 24, 2015 at 9:56 am

    A raid in January is first revealed now? The untransparency of this islamo-marxist regime in cahoots
    with iran and islam is truly shocking! Yet the lying chimp gets before the Tv cameras and boats of having the most transparent regime …. ever. It is transparent, we can see through him like through a
    a clear glass!

    When will the servile GOP/RINOs even start to ponder putting up some opposition?

    • Clay says

      Apr 24, 2015 at 2:02 pm

      As a retired soldier I don’t want the government telling everyone what we do in a war. We killed some people who shouldn’t be killed. It is war. We let a German U-boat sink a transport ship off the coast of Scotland during WWII that killed over 2,000 of our troops so the Germans would not know we had broke their code.

      Think like we are at war. Stop thinking we in some law enforcement process. I’m sure you don’t want to encourage the Islamist, but that is what post like your’s does.

      • rev g says

        Apr 24, 2015 at 11:44 pm

        Your attempt to rationalize bad behavior through extreme example is telling. It tells me you are not a soldier I would have welcomed in my troop.
        When you become that which you claim to be seeking to destroy, you have only destroyed yourself, willingly.

        • Clay says

          Apr 25, 2015 at 8:28 am

          I’m not rationalizing bad behavior. I realize what war is. Historically this has been easy. Our causalities have been very low. Trying to make a mistake or imperfection illegal is defeatist, it encourages the enemy and ensures that they will take more hostages.

          Since you are on this site, I’m sure you are aware that the Islamist depend people with your attitude to defeat us. They know that if we have the attitude you have presented they do not have to win on the battlefield. We will just quit.

          We do not impress the Islamist who have declared war us when we give them “rights”. They think us fools and they double their efforts to kills us. We become soft targets.

          What the Islamist will respect and surrender to is a people that fight them confident in justness of their cause and with ruthlessness. They will not respect or surrender to a people that refuse to realize that the Islamist have declared war on them and refuse to act accordingly. After we defeat them we can show mercy and teach them the rule of civil law.

  10. David says

    Apr 24, 2015 at 11:02 am

    The Destiny of America is very great. Here are some of the Baha’i Writings about just how great America’s future will be. The Baha’i Faith is the only Faith in earth that has a special Prayer for America revealed.

    “The continent of America, is in the eyes of the one true God the land wherein the splendors of His light shall be revealed, where the mysteries of His Faith shall be unveiled, where the righteous will abide and the free assemble.” “May this American democracy be the first nation to establish the foundation of international agreement. May it be the first nation to proclaim the unity of mankind. May it be the first to unfurl the standard of the ‘Most Great Peace’… The American people are indeed worthy of being the first to build the tabernacle of the great peace and proclaim the oneness of mankind… May America become the distributing center of spiritual enlightenment and all the world receive this heavenly blessing. For America has developed powers and capacities greater and more wonderful than other nations… May the inhabitants of this country become like angels of heaven with faces turned continually toward God. May all of them become servants of the omnipotent One. May they rise from their present material attainments to such a height that heavenly illumination may stream from this center to all the peoples of the world… This American nation is equipped and empowered to accomplish that which will adorn the pages of history, to become the envy of the world and be blest in both the East and the West for the triumph of its people… The American continent gives signs and evidences of very great advancement. Its future is even more promising, for its influence and illumination are far-reaching. It will lead all nations spiritually.”Abdul-Baha

  11. Uncle Vladdi says

    Apr 24, 2015 at 5:35 pm

    Warren Weinstein was giving aid to Pakistan. He was also held by AlQuaeda for four years before the muslim Obama finally killed him.

    You’d think the average Jew would have been smarter than to vote for Obama or to go to Pakistan to give aid to muslims.

    ‘Nuff said!

  12. Clay says

    Apr 24, 2015 at 9:35 pm

    Rev g,
    Yes there are legalities in war. What we did in this instance is legal in war. If we want to treat the Islamist like bank robbers, which is foolish, it could or could not be illegal depending on the warrant. Ever heard of wanted dead or alive?

    • rev g says

      Apr 24, 2015 at 10:03 pm

      Are you sure? Previously these actions would have been illegal in many ways during warfare. Our courts have ruled it legal, on sketchy grounds, and without international accord. It really does not hold up to scrutiny, even IF we were at war.
      Sorry.

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