Adam Gadahn

Adam Yahiye Gadahn

Gadahn was born Adam Pearlman, the son of musician Phil Pearlman. Gadahn's Jewish paternal grandfather, Carl Pearlman, was on the Board of the Anti-Defamation League. According to Gadahn, his grandfather was a zealous supporter of Israel.

Gadahn converted to Islam in 1995, aged 17, at a California mosque, the same year he began studying it at the Orange County Islamic Society.

Members of Gadahn's circle were young fundamentalists who targeted the mosque's chairman, Haitham Bundakji, whom they referred to as "Danny the Jew" for his practice of wearing Western clothes and being overly friendly with Jews.

He assaulted Haitham Bundakji in 1997.

Gadahn reportedly moved to Pakistan in 1998, where he married an Afghan refugee and maintained intermittent contact with his family until March 2001, when all contact with his family stopped.

In a short period of time, Gadahn became a senior advisor to Bin Laden and is assumed to be playing the role of translator, video producer, and cultural interpreter.

When bin laden was killed in 2011, it was revealed that he had been communicating regularly, via letter, with Adam Gadahn.