LYCOS RETRIEVER 
John Walker Lindh: American Taliban
built 395 days ago
"John Walker Lindh pleaded guilty in a court of law to supporting the Taliban," said Mark Corallo. "The Taliban was a brutal regime which harbored and assisted Al Qaida. Mr. Lindh pleaded guilty to these charges with his lawyers standing beside him. He was sentenced accordingly."
Source:
The story of 20-year-old John Walker Lindh, an American charged with treason for fighting with the Taliban, has engrossed and shocked America. But what has the news media accomplished with its coverage?
Source:
Mahoney claims that his new book puts not only John Walker Lindh on trial but the entire U.S. government, for what he calls its treasonous double dealings with states that aid terrorists. Part biography of Lindh, part courtroom transcript, part military field report and in large part conjecture, the book, while often muddled and disconnected, raises important questions about the precarious nature of the U.S.'s alliances with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The author claims, as have others, that the U.S. enabled the rise of the Taliban by arming the mujahideen fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Most readers will find, though, that the charge that this constitutes treason ignores the complexity of the geopolitical landscape. Mahoney's second claim is that, because of its insatiable thirst for oil and profit, the U.S. habitually turns a blind eye to Saudi Arabia's and Pakistan's support of terrorism. The author's main charge... is that the Justice Department abruptly stopped Lindh's trial for fear of what might be revealed.
Source:
The recent cases of Michael Kopper, the Enron book-cooker, and John Walker Lindh, the Taliban fellow-traveler, both ended with a practice that, according to Stephen Schulhofer, an N.Y.U. law professor, is wrongly considered almost ''inevitable'' by most players in the justice system: a plea bargain. Kopper exemplifies one common type -- the white-collar criminal with a good lawyer who agrees to help prosecutors hook bigger fish in exchange for a much lighter sentence than he might otherwise get (and thereby sparing the state the costs of a trial). Lindh typifies the defendant who pleads to avoid the possibility of execution; the government's reward includes not having to expose security sources (or, perhaps, a weak case) if the case goes to trial.
Source:
Frank Lindh, a lawyer in San Francisco, is the father of John Walker Lindh, the so-called "American Taliban," who was taken prisoner by the United States in December 2001 in Afghanistan. Frank Lindh has been speaking on his son's behalf at colleges and universities throughout the United States. This will be his first lecture in Great Britain.
Source:
Editor's Note: The public has heard little about John Walker Lindh since the media frenzy over his capture in the winter of 2001. On January 19, John's father Frank Lindh delivered an address at The Commonwealth Club of California. Lindh explained that he and his family have avoided the press for nearly four years; he now wants the public to understand the truth about his son, who he says didn't stand a chance of getting a fair trial in the emotional days following 9/11. Immediately characterized as a "terrorist" by the press and politicians, Lindh faced a jury in Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Pentagon. The trial date scheduled by the judge was the anniversary of 9/11. Initially facing 11 criminal counts -- most relating to terrorism -- the only charge that John Lindh was found guilty of was violating economic sanctions by supporting the Taliban government, for which the 20-year-old was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
American Taliban