U.S. citizen charged with treason; indictment cites appearances in al-Qaida videos

LOS ANGELES — The charge of treason was used for the first time in the U.S. war on terrorism Wednesday, filed against a California native who appeared in propaganda videos for al-Qaida.

Adam Yehiye Gadahn, 28, could be sentenced to death if convicted of the charge, which has been alleged about 30 times in U.S. history and has not been used since the aftermath of World War II.

He also was indicted on a charge of providing material support to terrorists.

Gadahn "knowingly adhered to an enemy of the United States, namely, al-Qaida, and gave al-Qaida aid and comfort ... with intent to betray the United States," according to the indictment, handed up by an Orange County grand jury.

The FBI also added Gadahn to its list of most-wanted terrorists and offered a $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction.

In announcing the indictment in Washington, D.C., Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty said, "We have a U.S. citizen who has betrayed his country," adding that Gadahn sought to help al-Qaida "demoralize" and "intimidate" Americans with his broadcasts.

Gadahn has been sought by the FBI since 2004.

Gadahn, who was raised as Adam Pearlman on a goat farm in Riverside, in Southern California, is believed by the FBI to be in Pakistan. He converted to Islam at 17. He is suspected of having attended the terrorist group's training camps in Pakistan and of serving as a translator. He has become known as Azzam al-Amriki, or "Azzam the American."

Gadahn appeared last month in a 48-minute video with al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, calling on Americans to convert to Islam and for U.S. soldiers to switch sides in the Iraq and Afghan wars.

It was the second time he appeared in a video with al-Zawahri. In a July 7 video marking the anniversary of the terrorist attacks in London, Gadahn said no Muslim should "shed tears" for Westerners killed by al-Qaida attacks.

Beyond that, authorities think he is the masked figure in two previous videos from al-Qaida, one given to ABC television in 2004 and one a few days before the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

According to the indictment, Gadahn said in the 2004 video that he had joined al-Qaida: "Fighting and defeating America is our first priority. The streets of America shall run red with blood."

The treatment of Gadahn is notably different from the Justice Department's approach to other U.S. citizens accused of working on behalf of al-Qaida since Sept. 11.

California native John Walker Lindh, for example, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for providing support to al-Qaida and aiding the Taliban in Afghanistan.

McNulty dismissed questions about the timing of the indictment, which comes as the Bush administration seeks to focus attention on national security for the midterm elections.

Gadahn's mother last spoke to him by phone in March 2001. At the time he was in Pakistan, working at a newspaper, and his wife was getting ready to have a child.

The last person convicted of treason was Tomoya Kawakita, a Japanese American sentenced to death in 1952 for tormenting U.S. prisoners of war during World War II; President Eisenhower commuted his sentence to life imprisonment.

Material from Newsday and The Washington Post is included in this report.