American Al-Qaeda Returns

Accused terrorist and viral Internet star Adam Gadahn resurfaced yesterday in a new video communique as "Azzam the American." Gadahn, 28, a California native who has become a major Al-Qaeda mouthpiece, appeared in widescreen format to promise that the group will continue its "defensive jihad" unless American troops are removed from every Muslim country.

Gadahn, né Adam Pearlman, became the first American in half a century to be charged with treason last year. In his first video since September, he delivered his jeremiad in his trademark pastiche of eighth-century syntax and California surfer idiom. "New fronts are being opened and old fronts reinvigorated," he said, "and you and yours are feeling the heat."