Calif. Man, 28, Is First American Charged With Treason Since WWII Era

LOS ANGELES — A 28-year-old Californian who joined Al Qaeda and appeared in propaganda videos for the terrorist organization was indicted yesterday on federal charges of treason and aiding terrorists, a U.S. Justice Department official said.

Adam Yehiye Gadahn could be sentenced to death if convicted of the charge, which has been used only a few dozen times in American history and not at all since the World War II era. He also was indicted on a charge of providing material support to terrorists.

A grand jury returned the indictment against Mr. Gadahn, a suspected Qaeda operative sought by the FBI since 2004, the official said, asking to remain anonymous because the indictment was to be announced later in the day.

Mr. Gadahn, who is believed to be in or near Pakistan, is believed to have attended the terrorist group's training camps in Pakistan and served as one of its translators. He has become known by his nom de guerre Azzam al-Amriki, or "Azzam the American."

Mr. Gadahn appeared last month in a 48-minute video along with Al Qaeda's no. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, calling on his countrymen to convert to Islam and for American soldiers to switch sides in the Iraq and Afghan wars.

It was the second time that he appeared in the same video with Mr. Zawahri.

In a July 7 video marking the one-year anniversary of the terror attack on London commuters, Mr. Gadahn appeared briefly, saying no Muslim should "shed tears" for Westerners killed by Al Qaeda attacks.

Beyond that, authorities believe that he is the masked figure who appeared in two previous videos not officially from Al Qaeda, one given to ABC television in 2004 and another a few days before the fourth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Raised in Southern California on a Riverside goat farm, Mr. Gadahn converted to Islam and worshipped at the Islamic Society of Orange County in 1997 before being expelled for attacking one of its leaders.

His 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.