Going Gangbusters By Annette Stark

GOING GANGBUSTERS
New federal gang legislation will increase death penalty crimes, possibly for juveniles
By Annette Stark

If the House of Representatives has its way, a lot of inner-city kids will soon be receiving 30 to life - instead of a second chance. Many others will be sent to death row. On May 11, the House passed the trigger-happy "Gangbuster" bill, or Gang Deterrence and Community Protection Act of 2005 (HR 1279), which federalizes street gang crime, circumvents the power of judges over gang prosecutions, and expands the scope of the death penalty in gang crimes.
That accidental killings or second-degree murder could be prosecuted as capital crimes might give hardcore death penalty advocates pause. Still, according to numerous civil rights organizations and attorneys for the ACLU (strong opponents of the bill), it's a legitimate possibility, even while the bill's supporters are insisting that an existing federal law - under Title 18 - prevents the death penalty from being applied in second-degree murder cases. "No one can believe that this is a reality ... but there is still the opening in that federal statute [under Title 18] for the death penalty in accidental death," explains Jesselyn McCurdy, an ACLU Legislative Counsel.
Consider this scenario: Three gang members rob a liquor store. Only one is armed and he shoots the clerk. All three get the death penalty.
Here's another: A chance street fight between two rival gangs leads to one young man being killed. Not premeditated murder. Nevertheless, the perpetrator gets the death sentence and the other gang members get a minimum of 30-to-life.
McCurdy speculates that, should the bill pass the Senate and become law, "An argument can be made for the death penalty in a second-degree murder case - where a gang member didn't show up to kill someone, but acted recklessly and killed someone. Prosecutors can also argue the death penalty for the gang members who didn't commit the murder, too."
According to a spokesperson for Representative Frank Wolf (R-VA), who coauthored the House bill, if that's the way it turns out, fine. "If it helps deter crime, that's okay," says spokesperson Daniel Scandling. "Don't you think it will stop people from committing a crime? Maybe it will make people think twice before they walk into the liquor store and rob someone."
Wolf's 10th District, which includes suburbs of Fairfax, Virginia, reflects the new reality of gangs, which have been spreading for years to suburban and even rural areas.
The bill's coauthor, Congressman J. Randy Forbes (R-VA), was less forthcoming about its potential effects. Though arguing that the above-noted scenarios involving accessories to murder or second-degree murder are just fiction, when asked by CityBeat to state this on the record, a Forbes spokesperson refused. Forbes's office instead provided background on Supreme Court rulings and Title 18, reiterating as that only "the worst of the worst" would be eligible for the death penalty.
The official stated purpose of the Gang Deterrence Act is to "amend Title 18, United States Code, to reduce violent gang crime and protect law abiding citizens." And then there is this passage, which clearly states, "if the gang crime results in the death of any person [the gang member shall be] sentenced to death or life in prison."
As the ACLU sees it, this language is just too broad. "We've gone back and forth with the Republicans about it," says McCurdy. "We've told them it's clear in [existing law] that if a person commits second-degree murder they can get the death penalty."
But HR 1279 isn't just a Republican bill; it passed so overwhelmingly (279 to 144) that Forbes celebrated it as a "bipartisan" effort in a statement on his website. Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) had suggested that Congress should be more focused on preventing young kids from joining gangs, to which Forbes blustered: "Common sense tells us that you can't rip criminal gangs out of our neighborhoods by offering gangbangers who are murdering, raping, and maiming innocent victims more afterschool basketball or arts-and-crafts projects."
Responding to the Forbes statement, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) says there's already enough federal law: "I am pained by such a cynical view of a problem that elected officials should be working hard to deal with. We must incarcerate criminals and we have the laws on the books to do that."
Waters is arguably the most experienced member of Congress when it comes to gangs, representing some of the most heavily gang-controlled areas in the country, including Inglewood and Watts, and has championed programs like Community Build and Project Build, saying, "Not only did we get people in jobs they still have today, they bought homes, got businesses. We got people to remove tattoos and do community projects to pay off warrants to be free of interaction with the police. We're talking about real intervention and it does take resources and it does turn this situation around."
In addition to expanding the scope of the death penalty, HR 1279 gives blanket authority to the U.S. Attorney General to prosecute these cases. And while it does not authorize additional funds for local law enforcement or gang prevention programs, it reiterates an earlier appropriations bill authored by Rep. Wolf, which passed the Senate in December 2004 and authorized $10 million to the FBI for the purpose of creating a National Gang Intelligence Center and database of street gang members. It sets strict minimum sentences for gang crimes and allows juveniles to be tried as adults.
A Forbes spokesperson also cited Supreme Court rulings that exempt juveniles from getting the death penalty, but again refused to go on the record and state definitively that HR 1279 would not lead to juveniles being put to death. But Waters and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) are among those who believe it could happen.
"I don't know how I feel about the death penalty, to be honest," says Dave Carver, Gang Response and Intervention Team (GRIT) coordinator for Loudoun County, Virginia, which is in Rep. Wolf's district. "I don't know that it would deter gang crime any more than it has deterred other crimes in the past."
Carver believes that results are better when resources are allocated toward prevention and intervention. "When I'm asked how many kids did you prevent becoming gang members, we don't have those statistics. That makes it hard to get funds and it's a barrier we have to overcome."
Now the bill goes to the Senate, where legislation already exists from Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT). According to Feinstein spokesperson Scott Gerber, her bill differs in five key ways:
• The Feinstein bill doesn't expand the range of gang crimes punishable by death.
• Feinstein sets non-mandatory maximums. The House sets mandatory minimums.
• Feinstein's bill makes it a federal crime to recruit a juvenile. The House doesn't.
• The House gives blanket authority to the attorney general to try a juvenile as an adult. The Feinstein bill keeps that authority with judges.
• Feinstein includes $350 million for prevention, intervention and suppression. Included in that is $60 million for witness protection. The House is silent on everything but suppression.
Civil libertarians will be happier with that bill, but the ACLU still will not support it, because of the issue about trying more children as adults. "We have problems with that," McCurdy says. "And we'd need to look at her definition of a 'gang.' Hers was better than the version by the House, but it wasn't great. It was still three or more people."
Waters hasn't seen the Feinstein bill ("I have to see if the death penalty is there and if it recognizes prevention"), but is also bothered by the definitions. "They refuse to understand that these children say they are a gang member just so they don't get harassed or in trouble. And not all gang members are raping and murdering and maiming people. So, yes, lock up the bad criminals and, yes, provide prevention. But we need to make sure that innocent young people don't get caught up with this simply because they went to the wrong place at the wrong time."
Published: 05/26/2005

http://www.lacitybeat.com/cms/story/detail/going_gangbusters/2131/

Meat Is Murder By Annette Stark

MEAT IS MURDER
Jerry Vlasak turned the animal rights world on its ear when he suggested that animal research scient
By Annette Stark

http://www.lacitybeat.com/cms/story/detail/meat_is_murder/3068/
You can call him "terrorist," or you can call him any other ugly word that comes to mind. It won't matter a bit. Since 2003, Los Angeles-based physician and controversial animal-rights activist Dr. Jerry Vlasak has been called that and worse. And it's not about to get better, as Vlasak appeared before Congress this year and said that killing research scientists was "morally justifiable" in the name of animal rights.
"I'm thick-skinned by now," Vlasak says. "I'm willing to take the criticism, the heat, if that's what's necessary for those who abuse animals to know that it's wrong. The people who are most critical are those who make their living off animals. People won't stop if we ask them nicely."
Few would argue that the heat on Vlasak has been extraordinary this year. Prohibited from entering the U.K., he's currently fighting criminal charges in Canada with other members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society for obstructing a seal hunt. Here in Los Angeles, the City Attorney's Office recently filed 14 counts of criminal conspiracy against the Animal Defense League, a legal protest group founded by Vlasak's actress/activist wife, Pamelyn Ferdin. (ADL-LA has consistently maintained that it does not engage in illegal acts.) Vlasak is the group's press officer.
Also, he was recently blasted by Congress for being the spokesperson for a movement the FBI now calls the "biggest domestic terror threat."
Shortly after his congressional testimony, Vlasak appeared on a 60 Minutes segment, titled "Burning Rage," reiterating his charge that scientists face death. "I think people who torture innocent beings should be stopped," he declared. "And if they won't stop when you ask them nicely, [and] they won't stop when you demonstrate to them what they're doing is wrong, then they should be stopped using whatever means necessary."
It was a headline grabber. Around the country, people expressed shock. In Los Angeles, where he has also been labeled "extremist" and "terrorist" in the press, it was a little more complicated. While folks were quick to point out that they do not support his radical beliefs, people who know him don't have much else bad to say about the guy. As press officer for the Animal League, which handles publicity for above-ground legal animal groups, such as ADL-LA, Vlasak is out in the community a lot. He's also press officer for the shadowy underground Animal Liberation Front (ALF). Though he isn't a member of ALF, he sends their often-anonymous communiqués and answers questions for the press. He is always pleasant, has met with the mayor more than a few times, and along with Ferdin is helping to spearhead the very mainstream cause of fixing the city's disastrous animal shelters.
The animal rights movement has a lot of moderates, but Vlasak doesn't really embrace them. "I wouldn't say I'm friends with those types of people. But do I associate with them? Sure I do, to enlighten them. Just as I was enlightened - at one time I ate meat. But would I consider someone like that a true friend? No, I would not."
Vlasak was born in Austin, Texas. The first glimmers of radical animal rights activism began to take shape in the early '90s, when he noticed that his patients were sick because of what they ate. "I was practicing surgery and doing a lot of work with cancer and gall bladder disease and noticed people were sick because of what they ate. I began to realize that a meat-based diet is responsible for premature deaths in our society."
After reading books like John Robbins's The Food Revolution, he began changing his practice. "I realized from a health standpoint that it was wrong to say to my patients, 'Yes I'll take off your breast' without telling them how to change their diet. And a lot of them said, 'Why didn't another doctor tell me?'"
Vlasak insists that he would never be violent himself - as a doctor, he points out that it is his duty to save lives. And, he says, reactions to the 60 Minutes segment were mostly positive. "A handful of people said they didn't agree with me and didn't want to associate with me. But it was easily running 20 to 1, supporters vs. detractors. I received hundreds of e-mails in support of my message.
"But you know Americans love violence," he continues. "They're violent with what they watch on TV, the video games they play are violent, violent for going to Iraq. When people turn it around and say that I'm advocating violence, I don't know how they can say that with a straight face."

Published: 12/29/2005

Animal Planet By Annette Stark

ANIMAL PLANET
After Stuckey is fired from Animal Services, new chief Boks steps into a department knee-deep in a crisis


By Annette Stark
Anyone who thought the firing of Los Angeles Animal Services General Manager Guerdon Stuckey would bring a little peace on earth - at least to L.A.'s tumultuous animal community - by now probably realizes that it isn't happening anytime soon. Four days after Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's December 9 notice to Stuckey that he had 48 hours to quit or be fired, Stuckey was in a meeting with employees of his department, saying he flatly refused to leave.
Villaraigosa then attempted to put an end to the whole mess by sending Stuckey his termination notice on December 15. He followed this with a press release announcing that a replacement had already been hired: Ed Boks, a longtime no-kill advocate and the former executive director of New York City Animal Care and Control (NYCACC). Boks will act as interim general manager in L.A. pending approval by the City Council.
The drama, however, was just beginning. Stuckey's attorney, Edward Lear, sent a letter to the mayor's office demanding a year's severance and threatening a wrongful-termination lawsuit. At the same time, union leader Julie Butcher, whose Service Employees International Union (SEIU) local 347 represents workers and managers in the city's six shelters, circulated a letter signed by more than 140 LAAS employees, pleading for their boss's job. The communication stated, in part, "When other public safety agencies in the City get bad press or have a perceived problem, they have money thrown at them."
Since his appointment one year ago by then-Mayor James Hahn, Stuckey has been targeted by animal activists, who insist he mismanaged the department and was not the man to execute Hahn's promise to make the city shelters "no kill" by 2008. On September 16, Stuckey's Bunker Hill apartment was smoke-bombed and the anonymous militant group Animal Liberation Front (ALF) took credit for the attack.
In that same letter, LAAS employees insisted that Stuckey's firing could result in "continued empowerment of these terrorists."
Shelter employees, however, say they were afraid to not sign the letter. "We asked [other workers], why are you signing this? They said they were told [by management]: 'If you don't sign it, how will that look for you if Stuckey stays? It won't look good,'" said one employee who didn't want his name used. This allegation was repeated by two other reliable sources with close connections to the shelters.
Stuckey will be appealing his case in front of the City Council on January 10. He needs 10 votes to be reinstated, eight to be awarded a severance package.
Enter Boks, who seems to be taking all this flap in stride. Still on vacation when he arrived in town two weeks ago, Boks got right down to business, meeting with the community, visiting shelters, and putting out the word that he needs volunteers to help paint the facilities bright, non-institutional colors, just as he did in New York. "L.A. is like a breath of fresh air for me," he says. "The big difference here is having folks who get it. Not just the Commission, the mayor's office ... Los Angeles is light years ahead of other communities in its acceptance of so many animal issues."
Stuckey appeared to have soured on the city's animal advocates over time - getting smoke-bombed didn't help - but there is every indication that Boks has a different management style. While Stuckey took a lot of heat from both activists and members of the Board of Animal Services Commissioners for not holding union shelter personnel accountable and, as CityBeat previously reported, even ignored reported violations of the Hayden Bill, it appears that Boks runs a tight ship.
Activists such as STAND Foundation's Daniel Guss went from originally questioning the Boks appointment to championing it. "He appears to have a track record of: If you want to work in the shelter, you had better have a passion for animals," Guss explains. "If they don't, they need to be gone, regardless of union obstacles. But if you say this to the union, they call you a terrorist. That's bullshit."
Boks doesn't dispute his record. "We did have a high turnover rate [in New York City], 60 to 70 percent," he explains. "There were a lot of folks in that system that didn't appreciate or weren't up to the challenge of no-kill."
At NYCACC, the first shelter worker who answered the phone said, "He was a good boss. He got rid of a lot of managers who were sitting around doing nothing." CityBeat's calls to United Service Workers of America, which represents NYCACC shelter employees, were not returned.
Boks's relationship to animal advocates, however, is sure to be tested very soon. On December 16, Butcher joined City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and Councilman Dennis P. Zine in a press conference announcing that the City Attorney's office had filed a 14-count criminal complaint against Animal Defense League Los Angeles (ADL-LA) for participating in a "criminal conspiracy to harass, intimidate, and terrorize city employees."
For the past several years, ADL-LA has staged raucous protests outside the homes of Stuckey, Butcher, and LAAS Commander David Diliberto, among others. They carry signs that read "puppy killer," and post the names of key L.A. officials on their website at stopthekilling.net.
The complaint lays out more than 40 incidents of alleged attempts by ADL-LA to "harass and intimidate Dave Diliberto." These include posting photos of Diliberto's family members on the group's website, showing up at his house after dark wearing "black clothing, hoods, bandannas, ski masks, and/or skeleton masks," and calling him obscenities (on his answering machine).
"It outlines a clear conspiracy by the organization to violate the state Penal Code," says City Attorney spokesperson Frank Mateljan. "If convicted, the defendant [ADL-LA] could be subject to fines and costs [$120,000] and probation terms that would restrict it and its officers from engaging in the illegal acts outlined in the complaint."
Shortly after the criminal misdemeanor charges were filed, CityBeat learned that SEIU 347, which represents shelter workers, also represents Diliberto and 400 city attorneys, including case prosecutor Spencer Hart. ADL-LA leader Pam Ferdin was surprised to learn of this tie, but the City Attorney's Office insists it's not a conflict of interest. The mayor's office did not respond to requests for comment.
On December 21, ADL-LA filed a $3-million claim against the city. According to their statement, the action is "In response to the blatant lies and egregious misrepresentation of facts by City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and other City of Los Angeles [City] officials."
Boks appears to have avoided controversy so far. Some activists, like Guss and Animal Advocates head Mary Cummins, have said they're delighted with the appointment. Others insist they're being cautious, feeling they got burned for originally supporting Stuckey. Normally outspoken, ADL-LA has only said its is still "researching" his background
But some activists have questions, including the "temperament testing" that was done on animals in New York.
"I'm glad you asked me that," Boks says, when questioned about the controversial practice used to determine if animals are safe for adoption. "There are several who feel [temperament testing] is voodoo science, or subjective, or whatever; it is a collection of data ... so that animals can be adopted responsibly or released to rescue groups who can better socialize and prepare them for adoption."
Explaining that he doesn't support the shelter's practice of euthanizing animals based on temperament tests, he says, "So, the question is how we use it: to save lives, rather than to take lives, to help dogs that are acting out of fear in a shelter, to get them out and into a loving home." He'll probably have a fight on his hands, knowing L.A. activists, but it also looks like he's ready for the noise. "Those who are critical, I completely understand your cynicism," he laughs good-naturedly. "And I welcome your input, observations, and feedback. What I understand of Los Angeles ... the community fully wants to help and when they don't feel there's a level of transparency, that just compounds the problem. Transparency is job one."
Published: 12/29/2005

Taped Evidence
The new videotape by SoCal's alleged Al Qaeda operative Adam Gadahn is cartoonish propaganda.

http://www.lacitybeat.com/cms/story/detail/?IssueNum=120&id=2639


By Annette Stark
The most recent videotaped message from Al Qaeda, delivered on September 11 by self-avowed, homegrown terror suspect Adam Yahiye Gadahn, should have come as "no surprise," said LAPD Chief William Bratton and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in a joint press release last week. "Bombastic pronouncements are expected on the eve of terrorist incidents like September 11th, but we cannot let such pronouncements alter our lifestyles."
The video was dropped off at ABC News and aired on Good Morning America. It featured a heavily masked man spewing warnings in English about potential attacks: "Yesterday, London and Madrid, tomorrow, Los Angeles, Melbourne, and Australia." While the FBI will only say it "believes" that the man in the video is Gadahn, it's been widely reported that he is. Gadahn, who was born Adam Pearlman, was an Orange County native and was briefly involved in the death metal music scene before turning to Islam at age 17. He is believed to be married and living in Pakistan and is now 27 years old.
The tape has prompted a flurry of responses by officials in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, but it also raises more than a few suspicions about alleged Al Qaeda operative Gadahn and how he came to be, as Bratton called him, "a mouthpiece, a spokesperson, not an operative."
A well-researched September 16 piece in the L.A. Weekly establishes that Gadahn was recruited by Islamic activist Hisham Diab and his business partner Khalil Deek to work for an Orange County funding group called Charity Without Borders. U.S. officials now believe that group funneled cash to Al Qaeda. It's important to note, however, that neither Diab nor Deek, both of whom left the country, were never charged in the U.S. for alleged terrorism ties, even after intense investigation of several bombings and plots.
The Gadahn tapes, however, suffer from suspicious timing. The latest, for instance, though linked to September 11, hit just as President Bush's ratings plummeted over his administration's handling of Hurricane Katrina. The first tape came only days before the 2004 election (though, strangely, not on the 9/11 anniversary), in which Bush's War on Terror was being challenged.
The 2004 tape was also dropped off at an ABC News office. That video bore the logo of the Al Qaeda production house, As-Sahab, and featured a young man staring directly into the camera, calling himself "Azzam the American" and making violent threats in the name of his leader, Osama bin Laden, speaking in fluent English and bursts of Arabic.
Oddly, however, a tape made by Osama bin Laden himself appeared only days afterward, and made no mention of the Gadahn tape. The two have not been linked.
In an appearance on Larry King Live shortly after the preelection bin Laden tape surfaced, veteran news anchor Walter Cronkite delivered these stunning remarks: "So now the question is basically [...] how will this affect the election? And I have a feeling that it could tilt the election a bit. In fact, I'm a little inclined to think that Karl Rove, the political manager at the White House, who is a very clever man, he probably set up bin Laden to this thing. The advantage to the Republican side is to get rid of - as a principal subject of the campaigns right now - get rid of the whole problem of the Al Qaeda explosive dump."
Amazingly, King passed right over this remark, and more than a few media commentators surmised that Cronkite had "gone senile." For the mainstream media, the issue died there.
But the absence of credible information regarding Gadahn has fueled growing sentiments in the blogosphere that the tapes are more than a hoax. "It is certainly no coincidence an American al-CIA-duh patsy, Adam Yahiye Gadahn, was splashed all over the corporate media on the anniversary of nine eleven," wrote Kurt Nimmo on his website Another Day in the Empire. CityBeat's e-mail attempts to reach Nimmo, a self-described "photographer, multimedia artist, and writer," were unsuccessful, but his musings have been picked up all over cyberspace.
In The Scotsman, Scotland's national newspaper, staff writer Jane Bradley takes a similar position, proclaiming this "is part of an ongoing scare campaign of fake and bluster terrorism designed to remind Americans of the 'threat' posed by Al Qaeda [...] what is sincerely comical is the seriousness right-wingers put into this obvious al-CIA-duh operative, believing the transparent and ludicrous propaganda Al Qaeda is in America, poised to attack at any moment."
Her column concludes: "Gadahn-Pearlman is an illusory (and cartoonish) demon custom-made for the right-wing paranoids who buy into the neocon 'clash of civilizations' scam."
Gadahn was raised in Riverside County on a goat farm. His father - former '60s antiwar protester and leader of the band Beat of the Earth, Phil Pearlman - made it a point to keep his four children out of the mainstream; the farm had no electricity or running water and Gadahn was home-schooled. So, records of his alleged proficiency with foreign languages have been hard to come by, and according to Imam Haitham "Danny" Bundakji, one of the leaders of Gadahn's Orange County mosque, Gadahn knew only a few Arabic words.
The few people who remember Gadahn from his death metal days have described him as "decent, quiet" and "intelligent." But Bundakji told CityBeat in November 2004 that he met an entirely different Gadahn. "He came charging into my office screaming. I never knew him to be violent before that. He was not even very talkative, at least to me and people of my rank. That day, he came in screaming and yelling and slapped me across the face." Bundakji also confirmed then that the man in the preelection video was definitely Gadahn.
Gadahn's membership and employment in his Orange County mosque was not unlike his death-metal phase - fanatical and brief - and the violent episode led to Gadahn's arrest and dismissal.
Nearly a year later not much else is known, including how Gadahn managed to become fluent in Arabic. According to his aunt, Nancy Pearlman, Gadahn was "quick to learn languages," but nobody has produced any evidence to substantiate this. A source at the FBI speculated for CityBeat that maybe he has an aptitude for languages, but refused to elaborate further.
Gadahn first posted his conversion to Islam online in an essay titled "Becoming Muslim." The writing is dated 1995, and is a deeply personal account of the young man's life at that point. However, this appears to be the only account Gadahn has left on the web, which some have suggested is incredibly strange. People who post tend to continue to post. And according to one death-metal aficionado who interacted with Gadahn briefly just prior to this, Gadahn wasn't much for the computer. He began living with his grandparents in their home in Santa Ana at age 15, and preferred snail mail, keeping a post office box for his death-metal band project, Aphasia Productions.
In other words, he's a cipher. The FBI's website cautions that he may be "armed and dangerous" - a warning that appeared when former Attorney General John Ashcroft first announced that Gadahn was one of the Justice Department's Most Wanted. And, with the CIA's understandable reluctance to definitively identify the young man in the preelection video as Gadahn, other questions arise: Is he making these tapes himself? Was he snagged in the Charity Without Borders investigation and recruited for a government job? Are there two American men who got lured by Al Qaeda?
Counterterrorism experts continue to weigh in 24/7 that this is a credible threat that ought to be taken seriously. "It's a propaganda message. It's an attempt to try to intimidate, to try to suggest they're still a force to be reckoned with," one official told The Boston Globe. "We take these things seriously."
But skeptics are inclined to agree with Chief Bratton that Gadahn is very low level.
In Los Angeles, Bratton and Villaraigosa have reminded everyone that a serious homegrown threat was thwarted one month ago when four local residents were indicted for planning attacks. Their statement continues: "The best thing any Angeleno can do is go about his or her daily life as you normally would."
Published: 09/22/2005

THREATS, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE BY ANNETTE STARK

THREATS, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE
Southern California acolyte Adam Gadahn may be mystery man in new Al Qaeda threat tape
By Annette Stark

http://www.lacitybeat.com/cms/story/detail/?id=1357&IssueNum=74

Suspected terrorist and metalhead Yahiye Adam Gadahn was back in the news last week. But this time the former Southern California resident's adolescent fascination with death metal was barely mentioned, as U.S. intelligence officials considered the possibility that Gadahn is the mystery man, "Azzam the American," who showed up on an Al Qaeda terror tape threatening "blood in the streets."
The 75-minute videotape, delivered to ABC News, appears to have been made with sophisticated production techniques and bears the logo of the Al Qaeda production house, As-Sahab. It shows a heavily disguised man in an Arab headdress and sunglasses, staring directly into the camera, speaking in fluent English and bursts of Arabic, proclaiming that Osama bin Laden is his leader and declaring that "the streets of America shall be red with blood, matching drop for drop the blood of America's victims."
A courier had actually delivered the tape to an ABC office in Pakistan over the weekend, but the news organization first turned it over to U.S. intelligence officials before airing segments on Thursday, October 28. The move has prompted criticism elsewhere in the media that ABC sat on the story.
While U.S. intelligence officials were still actively interviewing Gadahn's family members to see if they could identify him as "Azzam," Fox News reported on October 29 that it had independently acquired a copy of the tape and had shown it to Imam Haitham "Danny" Bundakji of the Islamic Society of Orange County - the man responsible for converting Gadahn to Islam in 1995 - and that Bundakji had confirmed that Azzam was indeed Gadahn.
Also back in the news, this week: Osama bin Laden, in another video, also delivered to a news organization in Pakistan. But this video appeared on a doorstep outside the television network Al-Jazeera, as reported by the U.K.'s Guardian Unlimited. In the video, bin Laden appeals to U.S. voters to change government policies in the Middle East. He references big contracts for Halliburton and cites a scene from Michael Moore's documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11, in which Bush sat in a classroom reading the children's book My Pet Goat while thousands of Americans burned. It is also the first time that bin Laden actually claims responsibility for the attacks.
The scoop, which only vaguely mentioned further attacks, accomplished something huge: It proved that bin Laden is still very much alive.
Comparisons between the two tapes were quickly preempted by the mainstream media's assessments about how the bin Laden tape would influence the tight presidential race. But the appearance of both videos in the same week in the same city has yet to be explored, along with questions as to why the Azzam tape contains maniacal threats such as "now it's your turn to die," and menacing hand gestures pointed straight at the camera, while the bin Laden tape features the terrorist in his most "reasonable" light.
"Our investigative course is to absolutely try to determine if these were manufactured individually," says an FBI spokesperson. "I think the CIA authenticated the bin Laden tape, but don't know if it's been done on the Azzam, yet."
Gadahn, 26, first showed up on the FBI's suspect terror list last May, following a TV announcement by Attorney General John Ashcroft that Gadahn was the first American suspected of having enlisted at an Al Qaeda training camp. The agency has posted a photo of the suspected terrorist on its website and cautions that he might be "armed and dangerous."
"He's still not charged with any crimes," says the FBI spokesperson, confirming that the FBI and CIA are actively questioning Gadahn's family. "Even if it is him, what does that mean? It means the same thing it previously did, which is that he's wanted for questioning."
As a suspect terrorist, Gadahn is arguably the biggest enigma Al Qaeda could serve up. As previously reported in CityBeat, Gadahn is the son of Phil Pearlman, a Southern California establishment dropout, Vietnam antiwar protester, and member of the 1960s band Beat of the Earth. Pearlman changed his name to Gadahn and moved to a goat farm in rural Riverside County, where Adam and his three siblings - all home schooled - were raised without benefit of running water or electricity. At 15, Adam Gadahn moved in with his grandparents in Orange County, where he also enjoyed a fanatical - though brief - fascination with death metal.
In an essay titled "Becoming Muslim," apparently written by Gadahn in 1995 and originally posted to a USC website, he details his subsequent conversion to Islam. "Having been around Muslims in my formative years," he writes, "I knew well that they were not the bloodthirsty, barbaric terrorists that the news media and the televangelists paint them to be."
The Associated Press reported in May that Phil Gadahn hadn't seen his son since Adam moved to Pakistan more than five years ago, and that they had only spoken briefly after 9/11, when he learned that Adam had married and was working as a journalist for a Pakistani newspaper. Last week, Adam's aunt Nancy Pearlman, an award-winning Los Angeles broadcaster and environmentalist, confirmed for the press that the family was working with the FBI to identify the man on the tape.
It's been widely reported that Gadahn is fluent in Arabic, fueling speculation that he has worked as a translator for Al Qaeda. Arabic speakers who heard the Azzam tape told The Christian Science Monitor that that the man who calls himself Azzam the American "speaks the language well, but not as a native."
But, other than Nancy Pearlman's observation that her nephew was "quick to learn languages," there are no reports as to how Gadahn became fluent in Arabic. "I think he's married to a Muslim, so he learned it the way anybody learns it, by living in another country," the FBI spokesperson speculates, stressing that she doesn't know what kind of intelligence the FBI has on this, "Maybe he just has an aptitude for languages."
Explanations about his violent predilections are even harder to come by. "Our family are strong believers in non-violence," Pearlman told CNN last May. "We are strong believers in peace."
According to Bundakji, Gadahn's membership and employment in his Orange County mosque was not unlike his death-metal phase - fanatical and brief - cumulating in a violent episode that led to Gadahn's dismissal. Bundakji recalled to CityBeat: "He came charging into my office screaming. I never knew him to be violent before that. He was not even very talkative, at least to me and people of my rank. That day, he came in screaming and yelling and slapped me across the face."
Bundakji was raised in a Palestinian refugee camp during the time of escalating Israeli/Palestinian conflicts, and has admitted in interviews that he harbored an early hatred of Jews, until a trip to Mecca in 1986 convinced him to change his ways. Since then, Bundakji has worked with interfaith communities and speculates that this was a source of resentment to Gadahn. "He had been hanging around with six guys that did not like my approach with interfaith communities. They just stuffed his head with resentment for me because they felt that I was too Americanized. I would not allow them to assemble in the mosque in the evening."
The Orange County imam hesitates to use the word "extremist" when speaking about Gadahn. "He just had the wrong ideas and was hanging around people who also had these ideas," Bundakji says. As to how Bundakji is so positive that Gadahn and Azzam are one and the same, considering that he hasn't seen Gadahn since their falling out in the late '90s, he says it was mostly the gestures. "I knew him for over two years and recognized him as the person who worked for me. His voice, his manners, and especially his frenetic hand movements."
Published: 11/04/2004

PEACE, LOVE, DEATH METAL BY ANNETTE STARK

PEACE, LOVE, DEATH METAL
Adam Gadahn was just another Riverside County devotee of death metal, but then he turned up on an FB
By Annette Stark

http://www.lacitybeat.com/cms/story/detail/?id=1212&IssueNum=66

If the radical right wanted to paint a portrait of a terrorist, they couldn't do much better than Yahiye Adam Gadahn. In fact, the FBI's announcement last May that it was actively seeking Gadahn for questioning regarding his possible ties to Al Qaeda energized conservatives in ways they could not have imagined - helping to not only whip up fears of Islamic radicalism but also to fuel the deepening "culture war." The 25-year-old former Orange County resident had a hippie upbringing, a short-but-fanatical devotion to death metal, converted to Islam, and spent two days in jail for attacking a member of his mosque. This story had it all.
Following the FBI's revelation, Gadahn's mosque, the Islamic Society of Orange County, and its religious director Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi, issued a statement saying how "deeply shocked" they were that one of their members had shown up on an FBI terror list. Clearly concerned about retaliation, the mosque begged for restraint. "We certainly hope and pray that ... this most recent rise in threat level will pass without incident."
Within a day, an essay titled "Becoming Muslim," apparently written by Gadahn in 1995 and originally posted to a USC website, was circulating on the Internet. In it, Gadahn details a preposterous journey, from an unconventional childhood as the son of hippie parents who raised him on a goat farm without electricity or indoor plumbing, to a short (it appears only one year) but fitful fascination with death metal music, to his subsequent conversion to Islam. "Having been around Muslims in my formative years," he writes, "I knew well that they were not the bloodthirsty, barbaric terrorists that the news media and the televangelists paint them to be."
With its Satanic, anti-Christian overtones and penchant for referencing gore and nihilism, the death metal connection proved irresistible to the media across the spectrum from conservative to progressive. A spoof on pittsburglive.com by Tribune Review columnist Eric Heyl poked fun at the right-wing notion that kids who are into death metal are on a short track to Al Qaeda. The first line of his piece read: "If only he hadn't cranked up the Ozzy Osbourne."
A lot of hypersensitive metal fans didn't get the joke. "The column thus far has inspired nearly 700 vitriolic e-mails," Heyl wrote in a subsequent article titled, "Listen, all you metalheads: It was just a joke!"
In the Simi Valley offices of Metal Blade Records, where people did get the joke, everybody just shrugged. "Why would someone like that get into death metal and then become a religious fanatic?" wondered Metal Blade head publicist Kelli Malella. Metal Blade has handled death metal bands such as Cannibal Corpse since the early '90s, when their theatrics and baroque affection for blood and body parts were a strictly underground taste. According to Jon Konrath, publisher of the now-defunct death metal 'zine Xenocide, and who knew Gadahn in '93, he was a fan of Cannibal Corpse and "just the usual, run-of-the-mill death metal bands."
Malella says, "They try to blame death metal bands for murders [and] suicides. Fact is, people don't listen to a band and then go out on a killing spree. If they do, they probably have some serious mental problems. To most fans, it's fiction, like a horror movie, and they don't take it seriously."
On the left, conspiracy theorists - no less energized than their right-wing counterparts - got busy, too. They thought it strange, they said, as if the government stitched the story together from scratch. Some kid who never before posted to the Internet drops a deeply personal revelation onto a USC website, a diatribe that is chock full of anti-government, anti-Christian sentiments, and then pretty much disappears from cyberspace. A person doesn't just post his entire life story on the Web and never post again, they say. You'd think someone like that would have been on the Web all the time; at least you could find him on Islamic faith newsgroups, chatting about the Qur'an.
But Gadahn's online presence is scant. Since stuff tends to hang around in cyberspace forever, it does raise questions that, other than "Becoming Muslim," and a few news articles he's appeared to have edited about jihad, why is Gadahn nowhere to be found?
There are other odd occurrences about "Becoming Muslim," such as Gadahn's statements that the U.S. government considered Muslims to be "bloodthirsty, barbaric terrorists." This is a mostly inaccurate conclusion to have drawn in 1995; though anti-Muslim sentiments in America rose after 9/11, the U.S. government had not previously taken such a hard-line position.
Meanwhile, people who spend a lot of time around the Southern California metal scene are still trying to figure out who this guy was and if they'd ever run into him in a club. Only two former metalheads, Konrath and Chris Blanc, have come forward to say they actually met Gadahn during his "metal years," and both only interacted with him in letters and by phone. Gadahn contacted Konrath in '93 and contributed album reviews and drawings to Xenocide. He contacted Blanc that same year and contributed flyer artwork for Blanc's radio show.
"I find that so strange, that a kid who was a fan of this never went to any live shows," Malella wonders, "because that's what the underground scene is about. It's not like being a fan of Britney Spears. One of the cool things about metal is that you can go to a show for 10 bucks. These bands are always touring; Cannibal Corpse was out there around that time. And in Southern California, every show comes through."
† Mindcrimes †
Adam Gadahn was born Adam Pearlman in Orange County. His father, acclaimed '60s underground psychedelic musician Phil Pearlman, was the one who chose the name Gadahn. Phil Pearlman founded the West Coast group Beat of the Earth, a band often compared by critics to their East Coast counterpart, the Velvet Underground.
Though this part of the story might have caused a few in middle America to pause, Californians are accustomed to living with leftover '60s culture, from the Heal the Bay movement to the Krishna festivals on Venice Beach. So it's not strange that a gifted '60s counterculture hero, the son of a Jewish urologist and a Christian housewife, would change his name to Gadahn shortly after getting married because (according to a former band mate) they wanted a name that "meant nothing." Also not strange was that they moved to a farm in rural Riverside County and took up the profession of raising and "humanely" slaughtering goats for market. Equally not strange is that Adam and his siblings were home-schooled and raised without running water and electricity. Eccentric, West Coast, out there in "la la land," but not strange.
At around age 15, Adam moved out, changed his name back to Pearlman, and stayed with his grandparents in Santa Ana, presumably - among other things - to watch television and not have to shower out in the woods in the dark. What kid wouldn't? He then became so obsessed by death metal that, as he writes in "Becoming Muslim," he "didn't clean his room" for a year.
According to his sister, Los Angeles environmentalist Nancy Pearlman, their father was a strong opponent of the Vietnam War. She told CNN, "Our family are strong believers in non-violence. We are strong believers in peace."
The little available evidence supports this. If you go online to the Lama Workshop at lysergia.com, a source for all things folksy, retro, and psychedelic, you can read at length about Beat of the Earth. In an interview, former band member Karen Darby recalls her brief reunion with Pearlman in 1994, around the re-release of the band's Relatively Clean Rivers album. (It's one of those '60s albums: two songs, one per side, each seemingly about 60 minutes long.)
"He had married a wonderful woman who was totally supportive and involved in his choice of lifestyle ... .The Ranch had NO electricity, they also used a well for water. He was raising goats, which according to him he slaughtered personally and humanely whenever preparing them for market ... . For some reason I had a hard time envisioning Phil killing anything. One of the funnier situations he described about his family situation was his utter disgust with his in-laws for giving his kids a battery-operated television. He said he was having to act as the TV police, trying to limit the ways in which television might damage his children permanently."
† Here Comes That Weird Chill †
For its part, the FBI is not much interested in Adam Gadahn's past musical life. "We aren't targeting him for listening to death metal. The FBI isn't interested in individuals who are expressing their views," says FBI spokesperson Laura Eimiller. "When those views turn into criminal activities, that's when we become interested."
Eimiller cautions that, despite information on the FBI website that Gadahn "may be armed and should be considered dangerous," he has not been charged with any crimes. "We have questions about his activities based on the intelligence we've received. We receive intelligence from various sources, a multitude of sources, prisoners at Guantanamo, electronic sources. He is wanted for questioning and the investigation is ongoing."
It's also a stretch to suggest that Gadahn was motivated to train with Al Qaeda, if in fact he did, because of an early fascination with metal. His connection to the metal scene couldn't have been that extensive if only two people have come forward to say they even knew him. So far, the FBI has only contacted and interviewed Konrath.
Konrath was at the University of Indiana in 1993, and working on Xenocide, when he says he met Gadahn through e-mail. "We never talked on the phone. He wrote some stuff. He seemed pretty decent and a creative guy. I didn't do anything to change his copy. He did some drawings, too, just scribbled stuff.'
Gadahn's tastes, Konrath says, were typical: "Death metal, gore metal, just stupid underground, but not in a bad way. He was into Judas Priest and Cannibal Corpse. He wasn't into anything bizarre."
Gadahn's album reviews and art appeared in Xenocide issue five. "A few years later, in the fall of '95, I got a few e-mails from him," Konrath recalls. "This was pretty much around the time he was getting serious about Islam. He wrote that he'd gotten into some trouble in the mosque, but otherwise we never talked about religion or anything like that at all. By 1995, he wasn't Adam, anymore. He was Yahiye Gadahn." (Gadahn's articles for Xenocide are online at www.rumored.com/xenocide/.)
Konrath now lives in New York and completed his second book in 2002, Rumored to Exist. He says it took a minute to remember Gadahn. "I got home from work and there was a message from a reporter. I thought, Who do I know? While it wasn't a huge shock, it was still a shock. Once the FBI called, I realized it was kind of scary."
Konrath notes that this doesn't fit the profile for metalheads. "Most people who are into metal don't go into Islam; they become Bible-bangers. So that seemed kind of strange. I didn't think heavy metal caused jihad, or anything like that. So it must have been a family thing. The only reaction that anybody in the metal community would have to [becoming a Muslim] would be racism. We wouldn't have known the difference between being a Muslim and a Buddhist."
The thing Chris Blanc remembers most about Gadahn was that he was "seeking something." Like Konrath, Blanc met Gadahn in the early '90s. Blanc had a radio show and Gadahn helped out by offering music programming selections and creating flyers for the show. "I think he did have some identity issues. You didn't get into death metal in that era unless you were rejecting modern society," Blanc says. "There were people who intellectualized it and he was one."
Blanc graduated from Pomona College and was actively involved in computer technology. He currently runs a computer-consulting firm in his hometown of Houston, Texas. But while Konrath remembers communicating with Gadahn by e-mail, Blanc has no such recollection. "He was not as Internet-friendly when I met him. I communicated with him only by phones and letters. He was a letter writer. Before the Internet you had to write letters worldwide, and I think he did that, but my impression was that he wasn't too found of the computer."
While Blanc admits "seeing Adam on that FBI list was alarming," he considers the possibility that the FBI is wrong about him. "I don't see Adam as an armed terrorist. He didn't have a violent inclination." Blanc worries about the FBI hunting for someone he remembers as a "good, sincere kid."
"If I saw him listed as a translator for Al Qaeda, I could believe that," Blanc reasons. "Adam was a born communicator and could relate to others. I see him channeling his aggressions through something artistic, much more than becoming a combatant. "He wasn't a foaming-at-the-mouth type, which there are plenty of in metal. People forget that this was a nice guy."
Published: 09/09/2004

Dr. Walter Boyce LA CityBeat 3rd Degree

http://www.lacitybeat.com/cms/story/detail/?IssueNum=192&id=1006

DR. WALTER BOYCE
~3rd Degree~
By Annette Stark
The UC Davis wildlife expert on the mountain lion in Griffith Park, avoiding the deer, the best way to greet a big cat
In a few episodes of The Sopranos last season, a bear wandered out of the Jersey wilderness and into Tony Soprano's backyard. The show's erstwhile hero didn't name the bear or develop any rapport with it; he just sat there in his shorts with a shotgun, waiting for the elusive ursine to reappear. Fortunately, the bear was a no-show. So far, the Griffith Park mountain lion hasn't been given a proper name, either, even though the wild animal has made several high-profile appearances. Since May, the lion has been sighted on the north side of the park and in a residential Los Feliz neighborhood at the intersection of Commonwealth and Cromwell.
But here in L.A., the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife has expressed no interest in capturing and killing our lion, assures Dr. Walter Boyce, the big cat expert and UC Davis professor who runs the university's Wildlife Health Center. Last week, Griffith Park officials flew Boyce in to tour the area, evaluate the danger, calm nerves, and generally provide education and advice about how our wildlife and people can coexist in this ever-shrinking cityscape.
-Annette Stark
CityBeat: How does the mountain lion differ from other big cats?
Dr. Walter Boyce: The mountain lion, cougar, puma, catamount, panther - all those refer to the same animal - is the only large cat we have in the United States. The next size is the bobcat, which is considerably smaller. Mountain lions range from about 80 pounds for an adult female to about 150 pounds for the male. They are exquisite athletes and predators and use this athleticism to hunt by ambushing their prey. A mountain lion has a burst of energy and is fast for short distances. So they lie in wait where the prey is and then it's a quick rush and jump.
Where did our Griffith Park lion come from?
We may never know, but the two most logical choices are either the Santa Monica Mountains or the San Gabriel Mountains. There seems to be a better connection to its habitat on Mulholland Drive, which runs in a line from the Santa Monica Mountains toward Griffith Park. It wouldn't be easy for a lion to make this journey, but it's conceivable. They would use any cover that's available to them - drainage ditches and trees - they're very cryptic, secretive.
Is there a possibility that it came from someone's backyard?
Yes. There are a number of accounts back in the eastern U.S. of mountain lions being seen in places like New York State. Mountain lions used to occur there, but as far as we know there aren't any native mountain lions still living in the wild in New York. But there are a number of privately owned mountain lions in this country and sometimes people release them or they escape. But an animal that's been in captivity wouldn't know how to behave in the wild. And the reports we're getting on this, the fact that it's been seen a couple of times with a few weeks in between, fits with it being a native wild animal.
Are there others in the park?
We don't even know how many there are in California. The Department of Fish and Game estimates there are maybe four or five thousand but that's just an estimate. There's no way to count them.
You have said that the appearance of the Griffith Park lion might indicate an upswing in the mountain lion population. What would account for that?
That's just speculation on my part. There are certainly more sightings, but there are more people, making it difficult for lions to avoid us. But we really don't understand much about why the lion population goes up and down. Over the past few decades, the number of lions has increased in California. Mountain lions were killed on bounty very aggressively during the first half of the 1900s, and when that stopped, mountain lions increased. And since lions track available food, as deer numbers go up and down, the available prey goes up and down.
Is it correct to say then, as a safety precaution, avoid the deer?
Whenever you see deer in Griffith Park, or in any of the mountains around L.A., there could be a lion in the area. But I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that the lion is very close to that particular deer. Most of the time, lions will be hunting at night, dawn or dusk. It just means that the prey is nearby and you're in mountain lion habitat.
What safety precautions did you suggest to Griffith Park officials?
These are the same things that anyone who goes into the mountains in Southern California should be aware of. You're in mountain lion habitat; the times you're most likely to encounter a lion is at night, or dawn or dusk. Travel with companions. Don't let your children get out of sight. And it's always a good idea to have a cell phone in case you do have an encounter. I saw some reports making a big deal about dogs off their leashes. Mountain lions do view dogs as a prey item, but that's typically when a lion comes onto someone's property. In Griffith Park, if you do have a dog poking around, you don't know what's going to happen.
You were quoted saying that the assumption about lions being shy and reclusive is changing. Are the lions changing, or just the assumptions?
Actually, I would like to correct that. Lions are still shy and reclusive and I didn't mean to imply they aren't any longer. That fits with what this Griffith Park animal is doing. Otherwise it would have been seen more frequently. All of the research we've done in San Diego fits with the idea that the lions are still doing what they can to avoid being seen.
From the lion's perspective, what most concerns you about this situation?
Griffith Park is not a good place for a mountain lion. It's a relatively small habitat and it's difficult for a lion to stay there a long time without getting into trouble. For example, moving out into the streets and getting hit by a car, or showing up in someone's yard where it could cause alarm and a response by law enforcement. Mountain lions are a true wild animal and Griffith Park only provides a portion of what a population of lions would need long term. There is adequate food and cover, however, with dozens of deer and smaller animals, as well, which is probably why this lion has remained there this long.
Are there any plans to capture it?
There's no plan to do that. The lion really hasn't done anything that would warrant capturing. I know some people would prefer it wasn't there. But the lion is behaving the way we expect lions to behave and want them to behave. It's avoiding people. There's nothing to suggest that this lion is a public threat.
What should you do if you encounter a lion? Most Californians are never going to see a lion. The times it has been seen, the animal looked at the person and went in the other direction very quickly. That's normal. If the lion should behave in a threatening way, you basically want to act big, do whatever you need to do to show the lion that you're the aggressive, dominant animal.