Update:

It looks like Gadahn is still on the run:

“Our initial impression was that the guy was Adam Gadahn but that information now looks incorrect,” a security official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.

The arrested man was believed to be an American who goes by the alias of Abu Yahya. Gadahn is known to have used a similar alias. “Probably the name and his origin caused the confusion,” the official said.

Original Post:

Some reports say he is in custody:

After some confusion in the intial reports, the Associated Press quoted Pakistani officials confirming the arrest of Osama bin Laden’s mouthpiece.

The Dawn, Karachi’s English-language newspaper, broke the news with a photo of a man being taken away with a bag on his head.

Gadahn was bagged just hours after releasing a new internet video urging American Muslims to go on shooting sprees like Maj. Nidal Hasan’s at Fort Hood last year.

He is the first American to be charged with treason since World War II.

If convicted, he faces the death penalty.

While others aren’t so sure:

A senior Pakistani government official told CNN that Gadahn was arrested Sunday in Karachi, but a U.S. intelligence official said there appears to be no validity to reports of Gadahn’s arrest. Other U.S. officials also said they have no indication that Gadahn has been captured.

CNN also has some background on the traitor:

Gadahn grew up on a California farm, and was home-schooled until age 17. A year later he moved in with his paternal grandparents, who were secular Jews. He converted to Islam at the Islamic Society of Orange County, California, but was banned from the mosque two years later after hitting its chairman, Haitham Bundjaki.

In 1997 Gadahn began working for a California charity suspected of having ties to al Qaeda. He moved to Pakistan in 1998.

His family has said they last heard from him in 2002. In 2004, the FBI identified him as part of an al Qaeda cell that was planning attacks aimed at disrupting that year’s presidential election in the United States.

In October 2004, he began appearing in disguise in al Qaeda videos. Gadahn dropped the disguise in 2006.

In 2008, he renounced his U.S. citizenship and destroyed his passport in another al Qaeda video.

Of course, his FBI most wanted page has more information as well.

Related:
al Qaeda’s Adam Yahiye Gadahn Warns of Attacks Worse Than 9/11
Al Qaeda Web Ad Promises a Big Surprise
Adam Gadahn Threatens Bush in New al Qaeda Video
American al Qaeda: Adam Gadan Video Coming Soon
Adam Yahiye Gadahn (Azzam the American): al Qaeda Targeting U.S. Embassies

Exercise Total Shield is designed to test the readiness of Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan. Pfc. Tony Orth shows us how the provost marshall and Explosive Ordnance Disposal offices are teaming-up for the training.

Wikipedia Bio: Mahmoud al-Mabhouh
Mahmoud Abdel Rauf al-Mabhouh (February 14, 1960 – January 19, 2010) was a senior Hamas military commander and one of the founders of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Al-Mabhouh was assassinated in the Al Bustan Rotana Hotel in Dubai on January 19, 2010, having arrived in the country earlier that day from Syria. It is suspected by Dubai police that he was murdered in his own hotel room, with accounts of the cause of death ranging from suffocation to electrocution. A controversy over the murder has arisen over speculation that it was an Israeli government sanctioned assassination

Israeli Envoys Meet British, Irish officials over Dubai Killing
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the government was determined to get to the bottom of the passport issue in the international murder mystery, in which the official was killed last month in his Dubai hotel room.

Miliband Denies Going Soft on Israel over ‘Mossad’ Killing
The Foreign Secretary insisted today that Britain was not “going through the motions” over the cloning of six British passports in a suspected Mossad assassination after Israel’s Ambassador denied he was rebuked by the Government.

Miliband: Israel Must ‘Cooperate Fully’ in Fake Passport Probe
Israel’s ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, Zion Evroni, said Wednesday that he too had received a summons from the country’s Department of Foreign Affairs and would be meet Minister Michael Martin on Thursday. In Jerusalem, Foreign Ministry officials declined to comment on the matter, but an Israeli diplomat said on condition of anonymity that the government has decided to withhold a public statement until the British message is received, and would then choose how to respond.

Six More Hunted in Dubai Assassination
The identities of the new six have not yet been made public, but among the group there is thought to be at least one more female in addition to the woman originally identified as “Gail Folliard from Ireland”, until the Irish authorities said that no such person existed. The second, as yet unnamed woman, was caught on CCTV camera following al-Mabhouh to his hotel room and identifying him at close quarters, before other members of the team moved in for the kill. She had arrived at the hotel dressed as a tourist and wearing a large summer hat and was accompanied by a large man in a Panama hat and beard.

France Demands Israel Explain Dubai Passport Affair
“We are asking for explanations from Israel’s embassy in France over the circumstances of the use of a fake French passport in the assassination of a Hamas member in Dubai,” the Foreign Ministry said in an electronic news briefing.

UK, Ireland Envoys: ‘Nothing to Add’
Ambassador Zion Evrony said after the hour-long meeting he had nothing useful to tell Ireland because he knew nothing confidential about the Dubai assassination.

Analysis: Dubai Hit Was Not a Botched Job
Irrespective of who carried out the January 19 assassination of senior Hamas terrorist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai, the operation was meticulously planned and successfully executed, and despite a surprisingly impressive investigation by Dubai police, the hit cannot be considered a botched job.

Analysis: Long-Term Fallout with UK from Dubai Hit Unlikely
While the British government (and the governments of France and Ireland, whose passports were also reportedly used in the operation) will be understandably angry, past experience shows that disputes in this area tend to be treated as belonging to the special, sealed-off category of ‘national security.’ Where states have good reasons to maintain healthy ties with one another, such incidents are rarely allowed to muddy the waters for long.

‘Israelis with Names on Assassins’ Passports not Protected’
Israeli law protects citizens from privacy violations, but not necessarily that of the seven Israelis whose names appeared on passports allegedly used by the team that assassinated Mabhouh.

Worth Watching: haaretzonline

Taliban’s Most Senior Military Commander Captured by the CIA in Pakistan Raid
Baradar heads the Taliban’s military council and was elevated in the body after the 2006 death of military chief Mullah Akhtar Mohammed Usmani. He is known to coordinate the movement’s military operations throughout the south and southwest of Afghanistan. His area of direct responsibility stretches over Kandahar, Helmand, Nimroz, Zabul and Uruzgan provinces.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar: Are other Taliban leaders hiding in Karachi?
According to a police investigator with the Special Investigation Unit, tasked with counterterrorism operations, not only leaders but also other militants are present in Karachi. “There is a network of [Pakistani] Taliban fighters scattered across the city,” the SIU officer says, speaking on the condition of anonymity. He estimates that about 150 Taliban militants from the tribal region reside in Karachi. They include recruiters and financiers, who coordinate with local criminal gangs and sectarian groups to smuggle arms to the tribal areas and arrange funding, he says.

Secret Joint Raid Captures Taliban’s Top Commander
The New York Times learned of the operation on Thursday, but delayed reporting it at the request of White House officials, who contended that making it public would end a hugely successful intelligence-gathering effort. The officials said that the group’s leaders had been unaware of Mullah Baradar’s capture and that if it became public they might cover their tracks and become more careful about communicating with each other.

Implications Of Arrest Of Taliban Leader Mulla Baradar
One question is, nevertheless, whether this arrest will disrupt and weaken the Taleban’s ability to act in the long term. Without question, it is a serious blow to the Taleban. But on the other hand, neither the arrest of Obaidullah nor the killings of leading commanders like Mulla Dadullah, Akhtar Usmani and others have done so. The Taleban movement has been growing from year to year, not abruptly in 2005 or 2006 as many claim but rather continuously after their regime’s downfall. And it was apparently able to fill in vacant command posts with ease and without much loss of effectiveness.

Interview Met Mullah Beradar, de #2 Van de Taliban
Text of interview of the esteemed Mullah Beradar Akhund, Deputy Ameerul Mo’mineen of The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan With the “ SARK ” magazine.

Why Taliban Leader’s Arrest Matters
“This is a significant blow to the Taliban. In the past they have been able to replace leaders, and no doubt they will replace him, but there are not many members of the Quetta Shura who can step into his role,” Mir told CBS News producer Ben Plesser in Kabul, referring to the Afghan Taliban by its traditional name.

Baradar Arrested at Roadside Checkpoint
“At times, it was difficult to hunt him because we had reports of his movement, but no confirmation if the figure riding in one of the vehicles among a few was in fact Mullah Baradar,” said a second senior Pakistani security official. “We had trailed him closely, but our priority was hunting him alive. It was easy enough to start a bloodbath but with no assurance of catching him alive”.

Sr. Official: Top Taliban Operative Captured, Providing Intel
A senior official tells ABC News that “several days” ago U.S. and Pakistani intelligence captured the Taliban’s Number 2, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, and he is providing intelligence. “This operation was an enormous success,” the official told ABC News. “It is a very big deal.”

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar
Mullah Baradar may know where Osama bin Laden is or at least have information that could help find him. (I’m assuming the Pakistanis don’t know already — not sure that’s true. I don’t think Osama is living in a cave. I think he’s in a quite comfortable villa.

Taliban Military Commander Captured; will it Impact Reconciliation Talks?
I’m similarly unconvinced that the manner in which Baradar is questioned will have any impact on reconciliation efforts. The U.S. shouldn’t torture him, because torture is morally and legally abhorrent. But I don’t think there are too many Taliban commanders in Quetta who will read the papers and say, hey, Mullah Abdul was treated nicely! We should turn ourselves in, too.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Captured as Pakistan’s ISI Change Tack: Analysis
The biggest significance of the joint raid by US and Pakistani agents lies in what it may say about the changing position of Pakistan’s powerful ISI military intelligence service.

ISI Leads the Way?
Today, Pakistani and US folks captured Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, apparently the most senior military commander of the Taliban. And the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence service led the way. I am confused since the ISI has long been an obstacle to any success against the Taliban. So, does this mean the ISI is now fighting the Taliban? Does it mean that Baradar has simply outlived his usefulness to the ISI? Is there a split in the ISI? I have no clue as I am not an expert on Pakistan, but I doubt that these folks have a strong grasp on this either.

Are Pakistan’s Top Spooks Finally Playing Ball?
“If the arrest of Mullah Baradar heralds a change in the ISI position towards its former protégés rather than being a one off, it will be a landmark event in the counter insurgency,” he writes. “It follows the ISI’s declaration earlier this month that it wished to play a significant role in Hamid Karzai’s attempts to reconcile with senior insurgent leaders.”

Worth Watching: themajlisblog

The BBC has a slideshow of several photos taken from a New York City police helicopter by Greg Semendinger. Never forget.