Arrested Al Qaeda operative isn't Riverside man

Pakistani officials reverse their earlier reports. They now say the man seized in Karachi is a Pennsylvania native.

By Alex Rodriguez

Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

March 8, 2010

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan

The American Al Qaeda operative arrested in Karachi over the weekend is not the Southern California native wanted by the United States on treason charges for his involvement in the terror network, Pakistani intelligence officials said Monday.

Pakistani security officials had initially asserted that the American they had captured in the country's largest city late Saturday night was Adam Gadahn of Riverside, a spokesman and top propagandist for the terror network.

However, by early Monday morning, doubts arose. U.S. officials said they were skeptical and had received no indication that Gadahn was the suspect arrested.

Later Monday, Pakistani intelligence officials reversed themselves and said the man was actually Abu Yahya Mujahideen Al-Adam, a Pennsylvania native and an operative for Al Qaeda. The intelligence officials said Adam had been transferred to Islamabad for interrogation, but would not give any further details.

Gadahn, 31, remains at large. He is on the FBI's list of most-wanted terrorists and is the first American since the World War II era to be charged with treason. The U.S. government has offered a $1-million reward for information leading to his arrest.

He was indicted in 2006 by a federal grand jury in Orange County for allegedly providing material support to Al Qaeda by appearing in videos on five different occasions between Oct. 27, 2004, and Sept. 11, 2006, with the intent "to betray the United States."

His latest video was posted on extremist websites Sunday. In it, he urged Muslims serving in the American military to emulate U.S. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of shooting to death 13 people at the Ft. Hood military base just outside Killeen, Texas, on Nov. 5.

In the video, Gadahn called Hasan "the ideal role model for every repentant Muslim in the armies of the unbelievers and apostate regimes."

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fg-al-qaeda-american9-2010mar09,0,1338548,print.story

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Reactions from local Muslims to arrest of Al Qaeda agent Adam Gadahn

Local Muslim leaders on Sunday applauded the arrest of Adam Gadahn, a U.S. citizen who worked as a propagandist for Al Qaeda.

“It's good for us, good for the country,” said Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, an umbrella group for mosques and Muslim organizations in the region. “Any person who is engaged in any unlawful and illegal activity needs to be held accountable.”

Syed said people who lack knowledge of the religion are easily manipulated and develop their own logic and ideology. “He has demonstrated to have mastered that twisted logic,” Syed said.

Gadahn's path from Orange County to Pakistan, where he was arrested, makes the work of the council more important, Syed said. “It even further strengthens us to continue the work we are doing, which is to share objective information on our faith and our community with all people,” he said.

The head of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles said his organization welcomed the arrest of Gadahn, a Riverside County native who appeared in videos defending Al Qaeda, including the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

“We welcome the arrest,” said Salam Marayati. “This is one step closer to defeating Al Qaeda and defeating the mentality of death and despair, which is alien to Islam.”

Marayati said Gadahn ended up under the influence of the wrong Muslims and had used the religion to make political statements for Al Qaeda. “I don't think that what he has been saying has any merit in Islam,” he said. “It is a political ploy.”

Gadahn prayed at the Islamic Society of Orange County mosque as a teenager but was barred in 1997 after hitting one of the organization's leaders, according to Muzammil Siddiqi, religious director of the organization.

"We called Garden Grove police and we did not allow him to come back,” Siddiqi said Sunday afternoon. “This is very unfortunate that he came here and did not learn anything good.”

Gadahn pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and was sentenced to two days in jail and ordered to perform community service, which he did not complete, according to court records. 

Siddiqi said Sunday that he didn't know how Gadahn ended up with Al Qaeda but said he and the terrorist group have done a lot of harm to Islam, to Muslims and to the United States.

Siddiqi welcomed the arrest but said he hoped that the news would be confirmed. There were false rumors last year that he had been killed, he said. 

“I hope they caught the right person,” he said. “Any success to eliminate the evil of terrorism from the world is welcome news.”

Gadahn is wanted in the U.S. for treason. He became a Muslim after he moved to Orange County.

Gadahn's aunt, Nancy Pearlman, who is on the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees, declined to answer any questions about Gadahn.

Told about the arrest, which was announced by Pakistani authorities Sunday, she said, “You know more than I do.”

As of late Sunday, U.S. officials said the reports could not be confirmed. American intelligence agencies spent the day sorting out conflicting reports on the purported arrest of Adam Gadahn of Riverside. By late Sunday night, U.S. officials said the picture remained unclear.

“In terms of who may have been arrested, the Pakistani rumor mill belched out three very different possibilities in about six hours,” one U.S. official said. “That should tell you something right there. It's by no means clear who, if anyone, the Pakistanis may have captured.”

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/

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Amber Dubois' body is found a year after she disappeared

Police say the teen's skeletal remains were found in north San Diego County. The suspected slaying of another young girl nearby may have helped lead investigators to Amber.

By Richard Marosi

March 8, 2010

Reporting from San Diego

A yearlong search for a missing 14-year-old girl from Escondido has ended with the discovery of her skeletal remains in a remote area of northern San Diego County, police said.

Amber Dubois, who disappeared last year on her way to school, was identified through dental records after police found her remains Saturday in rugged terrain near Pala, Calif. The discovery was announced Sunday by Escondido Police Chief Jim Maher at a brief news conference.

Police had refocused attention on the Dubois case after a registered sex offender was arrested last week in connection with the suspected murder of Chelsea King, a high school senior from nearby Poway.

The suspect, John Albert Gardner III, lived a couple of miles from where Amber vanished near Escondido High School. Maher did not disclose whether Gardner, who is being held without bail, is linked to the Dubois case. He said an unspecified lead led investigators to the remains.

Amber was last seen walking to school at 7:10 a.m. Feb. 13, 2009, carrying a $200 check to purchase a lamb for her 4-H Club project. The girl's family worked relentlessly to keep the investigation alive. They hired private investigators, raised thousands of dollars to distribute fliers, organized a walk-a-thon and put up a website, bringamberhome.com .

Police spent thousands of hours chasing leads, and Amber's face appeared on the cover of People magazine. Last summer, the family hired search dogs that traced Amber's scent to the Pala library, but no witnesses were found, according to local media reports. FBI bloodhounds later found no trace of her there.

No other solid leads emerged until Gardner's arrest. He is accused of murdering Chelsea King, who went missing during a jog at Lake Hodges on Feb. 25. Authorities discovered a shallow grave a few days later that was believed to contain the 17-year-old's body. Authorities have not made a positive identification, but said there's a strong likelihood that the remains are Chelsea's.

Amber Dubois' father, Maurice, helped in the search for Chelsea and was told by police that Gardner was being investigated in connection with his daughter's case.

FOR THE RECORD: Maurice Dubois lives in Buena Park, not Buena Vista.

Maurice Dubois, 40, of Buena Vista expressed mixed feelings at the time, wanting closure but hoping that a "monster" like Gardner wasn't linked to his daughter's case. "I'm living a nightmare. I keep trying to wake up out of it, but it's not happening," Dubois said last week.

Amber, a freckled, blue-eyed girl, was described by family and friends as a bookish, sheltered teenager who loved animals. "Amber is a smart and beautiful young lady; she gets good grades, is not into boys, makeup, MySpace or anything like that. Amber is content as long as she has a good book to read," her mother, Carrie McGonigle, wrote on the website.

Gardner's arrest has angered some residents and victims' rights advocates who say laws designed to protect communities from sex offenders have largely failed.

Gardner in 2000 pleaded guilty to molesting and assaulting a 13-year-old girl. Though a psychiatrist recommended that he be given a maximum term of at least 10 years, prosecutors recommended a six-year sentence.

He served five years of the sentence and wore a global positioning system device until his parole ended in 2008. As required by Megan's Law, he registered his residence. He lived in Escondido before moving to Lake Elsinore last year, but authorities said he spent time on weekends at his mother's home in Rancho Bernardo, near Lake Hodges.

Gardner's preliminary hearing is scheduled for next week.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-amber-dubois8-2010mar08,0,6267586,print.story

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Women pilots from World War II to be honored

The groundbreaking Women Airforce Service Pilots were buried without military honors and long denied benefits. But now they'll receive the Congressional Gold Medal.

By Johanna Neuman

March 8, 2010

Reporting from Washington

When World War II beckoned, she was a 24-year-old mother of two daughters, ages 4 and 2. Her husband was a draftsman for Lockheed in Southern California, and her brother became an Army Air Forces pilot.

Carol Brinton longed to become a pilot herself -- "My husband had bad eyes so he couldn't get in, and I've always had a hard time letting my brother get ahead of me in anything," she said -- but the U.S. military had other ideas.

"They kept saying women couldn't fly anything bigger than a Piper," she said.

In 1942, with a shortage of male pilots and a desperate need to muscle up for war, the military changed course.

Famed aviatrix Jacqueline Cochran had been lobbying First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt for a corps of female pilots. Eventually, Gen. H.H. "Hap" Arnold agreed. The Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASP, program was born, training the first women to fly U.S. military aircraft.

Recruited by newspaper ads and public service announcements, about 25,000 women answered the call. Of the more than 1,800 selected for training, 1,102 graduated.

During the war, they flew 60 million miles in every aircraft available -- Piper Cubs to B-29 bombers.

Prohibited from flying in combat, Brinton and others transported military personnel, towed targets for gunnery practice and tested planes newly repaired or overhauled.

"I'd fly them over their targets," she said. "The boys went down in the nose of the plane and dropped those bombs on the desert floor. Then I'd go back up to about 15,000 feet and fly back."

By the time the program was disbanded in December 1944, 38 women pilots had lost their lives. But there were no flags or military honors at their funerals. Their bodies were sent home and buried at their families' expense. The surviving WASP veterans paid their own way home and melted from history's pages.

The military decreed that their existence had never been cleared by Congress, and denied them benefits. Arnold's son Bruce lobbied for their recognition as veterans, a status Congress finally conferred in 1977.

This week, with fewer than 300 WASP members still alive, Congress is bestowing Congressional Gold Medals on all the trailblazing pilots.

So many relatives and fans are planning to attend a two-day celebration -- including Maj. Nicole Malachowski, the first female Thunderbird pilot -- that planners in Washington are juggling sites to accommodate the crowds at Tuesday's welcome reception and Wednesday's gold medal ceremony.

One of the pilots attending will be Brinton -- now Carol Brinton Selfridge, 92, and living in Santa Barbara.

"They didn't even let us join the Army," said Selfridge in an interview conducted on Skype. "We were private citizens."

Her journey as a military pilot was made possible by her mother, who agreed to care for her daughters. Her biggest challenge in the early days was finding a uniform to fit her 6-foot frame -- "We all got the same size overalls" -- and getting in 45 hours of flying time before showing up at training camp in Sweetwater, Texas.

She remembers making her solo flight in a rare snowstorm. In the barracks, she shared a bay with five women, including two so short they came up to her armpits.

She thought her greatest asset was her visual depth perception, which allowed her to excel at formation flying. In fact, when she started driving cars, passengers often thought she cut it too close for comfort.

Perhaps her greatest legacy is her granddaughter, Air Force Lt. Col. Christy Kayser-Cook, who followed in her footsteps. When Kayser-Cook was commissioned, two people pinned on her bars -- her great-uncle, who had been an Air Force pilot during the war, and her grandmother.

"She was always ahead of her time," Kayser-Cook said. "She only got to fly props and she was jealous that I got to fly jets."

But mostly what the veteran remembers is the adventure of it all. "The idea of flying always sounded wonderful to me. I was tremendously lucky. We had a lot of fun."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-wasps8-2010mar08,0,3571384,print.story

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From Parade Magazine

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PARADE asked 1,008 Americans what they'd do if given $100,000 to donate to charity. Here's how they'd share it: . Food and shelter for the needy $15,953.21 Research to cure disease $14,311.54 Disaster relief   $9,308.97 Animal welfare   $8,783.46 Youth programs   $6,514.53 Poverty relief/job assistance   $6234.83 Education   $6,069.00 My religion's charity   $5,921.93 The global environment   $5,340.51 Public health   $4,924.82 Human rights   $4,422.10 My immediate environment   $3,628.49 Literacy   $4,422.10 Other religious charities   $2,262.90 Promoting world democracy   $1,732.32 Visual and/or performing arts   $1,638.83

. WHY AMERICANS ARE DOING GOOD Most of the poll respondents are motivated toward public service by simple altruism--60% want to help other people, and 57% want to make the world a better place. However, many people are specifically moved to act on behalf of their own communities. Nearly half of respondents (49%) want to improve their neighborhoods. Daniel Freedman, 27, a Los Angeles law-school student, and his friends started a nonprofit organization that uses the resources and talent of area universities to address local environmental problems. "It's like what Gandhi said about being the change you want to see in others," Freedman explains. "You have to start in your own backyard." What tips people over from having good intentions into acting upon them? More than two-thirds (68%) say personal experience has been a major impetus, with 40% saying their motivating experience was a positive one, as in "Someone did something good for me, and I want to give back." A family member or friend's request (33%) and learning about an issue from the news (28%) were other catalysts. There are other reasons for civic engagement as well: It makes people feel good about themselves (39%); it's a moral obligation (37%); or it fulfills their sense of duty (36%). "While I've never been abused, homeless, or an addict," says Jackie Ryan, 33, from Sarasota, Fla., who works in sales, "I look for ways to get involved in those causes because it makes me feel like I'm helping people." She volunteers for a local food bank and a drug-rehabilitation facility, as well as Habitat for Humanity. . HOW THEY'RE DOING GOOD Over the course of their lifetimes, almost all respondents (98%) have engaged in at least one activity to make a difference, and an inspiring 91% have done so in the past 18 months. In terms of volunteer work, 37% delivered food to the hungry; 30% helped organize a fund-raising event; and 32% participated in a cleanup at a local beach, park, or other public area. Almost one in four volunteered at a soup kitchen or food bank (24%), participated in an athletic event to raise money for a cause (21%), or mentored a student (19%). In a sign of our wired times, the Americans surveyed are utilizing technology to spread the word about issues and to connect with others. More than one in four (27%) have turned to e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter to communicate about a cause. Jackie Ryan has posted on Facebook in order to encourage friends to join her in volunteer activities and donate to events like the 3K race she recently ran to raise money to fight child abuse. Many respondents have opened their wallets to do good, with 67% buying charity raffle tickets, 58% purchasing something unnecessary to support a cause, and 34% sending a check to a charity after hearing or seeing a touching news story. Despite the fact that most of the people surveyed said they've made cutbacks due to the economic crisis, 87% supported a cause financially in the last year. In 2009, respondents gave more than $400 on average to the single cause they cared about most. Americans aged 18 to 24 gave the least--around $100--while those aged 65 and over averaged more than $700. According to the PARADE poll, generosity continues to be the American way.

Who's Changing America Today?

Building Bridges of Hope

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