Was the American al Qaeda dude hit?

Remember Adam Gadahn, the American who became an Al Qaeda operative and occasionally appears on videos calling for the destruction of the United States?

A report today on the front page of Pakistan’s leading English language newspaper, The News, cites “rumors” and unnamed sources that Adam may be no more. Gadahn, the paper says, may have been in the house in South Waziristan hit by a missile from a U.S. drone a few days back.

The missile attack killed al Qaeda’s reported No. 3 leader, Abu Laith al-Libi, but a dozen or so others were in the guesthouse where al-Libi was bedded down.

So has Adam been atomized?

The News says the 29-year-old Southern Californian, once known as Adam Pearlman, and who now calls himself Azzam al-Amriki, may have been with al-Libi for a significant meeting of al Qaeda operatives in Khushali Torikhel village, near Mir Ali, when the CIA operated drone unleashed its missile.

The story notes that the State Department has a $1 million bounty on Gadahn’s head. Read more about Gadahn at the Wikipedia entry or this New Yorker story.

“However some military officials felt that declaring Gadahn as dead in the Mir Ali incident, the U.S. wanted him to speak for his defense or make some telephone calls so that they target him like rest of al Qaeda operatives,” the story said.