Update on Gadahn arrest; confusion reigns

Conflicting reports emerged Sunday about whether Adam Gadahn, a U.S.-born spokesman for al Qaeda, has been arrested in Pakistan.

A senior Pakistani government official told CNN that Gadahn was arrested Sunday in Karachi, and a second senior Pakistani government official later confirmed the arrest. But a U.S. intelligence official said there appears to be no validity to the reports that Gadahn was in custody, and other U.S. officials also said they have no indication that Gadahn has been captured.

The CBS story linked in the update below mentions a Pakistani source who is saying it's not Gadahn.

Now the New York Times is quoting administration sources that it is not Gadahn, but another American from Pennsylvania:

One American official briefed on the arrest described the operative in custody as fair-skinned and someone who spoke both English and Pashto.

Little else was known about him, American officials said, and it was not immediately clear that American officials were involved in the arrest. There was no confirmation that the arrested man was in fact an American.

Initial reports seemed to have confused him with Adam Gadahn, a California native who has been a Qaeda spokesman and often appears on videos calling for strikes against targets in the United States.

Senior administration officials said on Sunday that they did not believe the arrest was of Mr. Gadahn. For hours, information was difficult to confirm from Pakistan. President Obama was briefed on news reports of the arrest, but later learned they were most likely not correct.

Why the confusion? It appears that most of the major news outlets who reported that it was Gadahn in custody were careful enough, getting two or three confirmations before going with the story. Unfortunately, those confirmations appeared to be from Pakistani sources. All American sources so far say it is not Adam Gadahn.

Could it still be Gadahn and our intel people are using a little misdirection in order to wring the last ounce of intel out of their captive? Lying to American reporters would carry repercussions but Gadahn is such a high value target that they may feel justified in using the media to spread the news that Gadahn is not in custody so that the traitor's compatriots would relax a little and allow our people to swoop in and make more arrests.

Stranger things have happened.