Al Qaeda militant calls for attacks on Bush in Mideast

CAIRO — An American Al Qaeda militant urged fighters to meet President Bush with bombs when he visits the Middle East, according to a video posted Sunday on the Internet.

Adam Gadahn, who was raised in Orange County, also tore up his U.S. passport in the nearly hourlong tape.

The video came three days before Bush is scheduled to arrive for a weeklong trip in the region to push for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

“Now we direct an urgent call to our militant brothers . . . to be ready to receive the crusader, slayer Bush, in his visit to Muslim Palestine and the Arab peninsula in the beginning of January and to receive him not with flowers or clapping but with bombs and booby-trapped vehicles,” Gadahn, 29, said in Arabic.

Gadahn, also known as Azzam al Amriki, is the first American to be charged with treason in more than 50 years and could face the death penalty. He was also charged with providing material support to terrorists.