An American member of al Qaeda urged Islamist militants to attack Zionist and Western interests world-wide, in a new videotape posted online on Saturday. "The Zio-Crusader interests everywhere are legitimate targets for us," said Adam Gadahn, who is also known as Azzam the American, in a tape provided by the US-based SITE Intelligence Group, which said was posted on Islamist websites.
"By striking them, we aggravate the enemy's wounds, bleed its crumbling economy, and reduce the load on our brothers the mujahedeen (holy warriors)," said Gadahn who spoke in Arabic for the first time, in the message titled "Let's Continue Our Jihad and Sacrifice" and addressed to the Palestinians.
"To describe the targeting of these interests outside Palestine as illegitimate is a mistake that cannot be accepted by a reasonable Muslim," said bearded Gadahn, who is listed among the most wanted by the United States, with a reward of up to one million dollars for information leading to his capture. In October 2006, he became the first person to be charged in the United States with treason since the World War II era.
The charge carries a minimum of five years in prison on conviction and a maximum penalty of death. Gadahn has appeared in several videotapes for al Qaeda since 2004, praising the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington and threatening new terror onslaughts. His conversion to Islam came after he attended the Islamic Centre of Orange County, California, where he is believed to have come under the influence of two foreign-born Islamist radicals.
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