Adam Pearlman
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U.S. intelligence officials said that a videotape found last month in Pakistan appears to have been made by a young American man wanted for interrogation in connection with possible al Qaeda threats.

Intelligence officials said that they believe the Californian man who threatened attacks against the United States on the tape is Adam Gadahn. "We have some confidence but not certainty" that the voice on the tape is that of Gadahn, one official said.

In May, the FBI added Gadahn -- born in 1978 -- on a list of wanted suspects in connection with possible attack threats against the United States. FBI Director Robert Mueller said that Gadahn is accused of translating material for al Qaeda.

A government official said that the FBI is not aware about Gadahn’s location, adding that there are no charges pending against Gadahn but that he is wanted for interrogation.

In late October, ABC News broadcasted parts of the 75-minute tape but a U.S. intelligence official said then that the CIA could not determine the authenticity of the tape.

On the video, a masked man identified himself as "Azzam the American" and threatened further attacks against the United States.

"People of America: I remind you of the weighty words of our leaders, Sheikh Osama bin Laden and Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, that what took place on September 11 was but the opening salvo of the global war on America," he said.

"And that the magnitude and ferocity of what is coming your way will make you forget all about September 11." He added.

When the tape was released, a U.S. government official said that it didn’t mention any means, mode or place of an attack.

Another U.S. intelligence official suggested that the tape had been recorded relatively recently, since it mentioned the Darfur conflict in Sudan and the report of the 9/11 panel.

The tape also included a graphic that showed it was produced by the "Sahab Production Committee," which is the same as that seen on a number of verified al Qaeda tapes.

Adam Gadahn was born Adam Pearlman in Orange County. His father, acclaimed ’60s underground psychedelic musician Phil Pearlman, was the one who chose the name Gadahn. Phil Pearlman founded the West Coast group Beat of the Earth, a band often compared by critics to their East Coast counterpart, the Velvet Underground.

Though this part of the story might have caused a few in middle America to pause, Californians are accustomed to living with leftover ’60s culture, from the Heal the Bay movement to the Krishna festivals on Venice Beach. So it’s not strange that a gifted ’60s counterculture hero, the son of a Jewish urologist and a Christian housewife, would change his name to Gadahn shortly after getting married because (according to a former band mate) they wanted a name that “meant nothing.” Also not strange was that they moved to a farm in rural Riverside County and took up the profession of raising and “humanely” slaughtering goats for market. Equally not strange is that Adam and his siblings were home-schooled and raised without running water and electricity. Eccentric, West Coast, out there in “la la land,” but not strange.

At around age 15, Adam moved out, changed his name back to Pearlman, and stayed with his grandparents in Santa Ana, presumably – among other things – to watch television and not have to shower out in the woods in the dark. What kid wouldn’t? He then became so obsessed by death metal that, as he writes in “Becoming Muslim,” he “didn’t clean his room” for a year.

According to his sister, Los Angeles environmentalist Nancy Pearlman, their father was a strong opponent of the Vietnam War. She told CNN, “Our family are strong believers in non-violence. We are strong believers in peace.”

At: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1264801/posts