OK, so since I’m unsure of the archive status of these things, I’m pasting here:
(www.nypost.com) December 4, 2001 — The American turncoat who fought for the Taliban was being interrogated by U.S. forces in a secret location in northern Afghanistan last night - and two others who claim to be Americans are also being held. John Phillip Walker Lindh, a 20-year-old Californian who assumed the name Abdul Hamid and joined the fight against America, will be held until the military decides whether he should be treated as a prisoner of war. The two other Taliban fighters who claim to be U.S. citizens are under the control of the Northern Alliance, a defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The identities of the men were not known. Walker’s dad, Frank Lindh, appealed to Americans yesterday to “have a little mercy” toward his son - even though he carried a gun against his country and said he supported the Sept. 11 terror attacks. “Our first concern is we want to see John,” Lindh said on CNN’s “Larry King Live.” “We are all very upset about what John went through . . . He’s really not much more than a boy. We’re very troubled and very concerned for his welfare. “We want to give him a big hug. I also want to give him maybe a little kick in the butt for not telling us what he was up to.” Lindh said he and his wife, Marilyn Walker - the couple is in the midst of a divorce - have hired a lawyer to defend their son in case the government decides to level charges against him. But he insisted, “John’s a good boy. I don’t know of any information indicating he’s done anything wrong. “I hope John could be debriefed by the government and come home.” Walker, who was one of only a handful of prisoners to survive a bloody uprising in a fort where 3,000 Taliban fighters were being held, last week told CNN his “heart became attached” to the Taliban cause while he was studying in Pakistan. “I lived in the region, the Northwest Frontier Province [of Pakistan],” he said. “The people in general have a great love for the Taliban, so I started to read some of the literature of the scholars, the history of Kabul . . . my heart attached to that.” Adm. John Stufflebeem, deputy director of operations on the military’s Joint Staff, confirmed Walker was in the custody of U.S. military forces. “It appears that he is injured or has sustained some injuries and is receiving military attention,” he said. After the fierce fort uprising was brought under control, Walker and other wounded Taliban were taken to a hospital in Sheberghan in northern Afghanistan. A Pentagon source said he was being “debriefed” in a secret location in Afghanistan. The source said it was still to be decided whether he would be treated as a prisoner of war or allowed to return home to America without facing trial. The executive order by President Bush, which enables terrorists to be tried in military courts, only applies to noncitizens. Peter Singer, a military-affairs specialist at the Brookings Institute in Washington, said Americans who fought for the Nazis in World War II were tried in military courts. “It may be that that model is followed, but it’s a very tricky issue,” he said. Walker told Newsweek after the fort uprising that he supported the World Trade Center attacks. “That requires a pretty long and complicated explanation,” he said when asked about the attacks. “I haven’t eaten for two or three days, and my mind is not really in shape to give you a coherent answer.” Pressed further, he said, “Yes, I supported it.”
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And here’s an op/ed from BostonPhoenix.com on this kid:
TODAY’S JOLT An American Talibans ‘youthful indiscretion’
BY DAN KENNEDY TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2001
Leave it to the hometown newspaper to put the best possible spin on the astounding story of John Phillip Walker Lindh, a/k/a Suleyman Al-Lindh, a/k/a Abdul Hamid.This morning’s San Francisco Chronicle reports that Walker-a rich kid from Marin County who became a Taliban fighter-was just a smart, mature, respectful boy who converted to Islam as part of a precocious search for spiritual meaning. The quote of the day comes from “family friend” Bill Jones, who says of Walker’s transformation from Tamiscal High School student to terrorist: “It was a youthful indiscretion.” Generally speaking, “youthful indiscretion” is the language that politicians reach for when trying to explain away those pesky rumors that they smoked pot when they were in college. (Of course, let’s not forget the case of US Representative Henry Hyde, who memorably described his affair with a married woman when he was in his 40s as a “youthful indiscretion.”)
It’s not immediately apparent how to characterize a 20-year-old American citizen’s decision to join the Taliban and take up arms against the United States, but surely “youthful indiscretion” isn’t it. In its crude, simple-minded way, today’s New York Post comes closer to getting at the truth: “turncoat” and “rat” are the words it uses.Though it’s hard to feel much sympathy for Walker, today’s New York Times paints a picture of him as the product of a family that, in its own quiet, affluent way, was severely dysfunctional. Raised by a Roman Catholic father and a Buddhist mother who had separated, Walker (he used his mother’s last name) converted to Islam at the age of 16 after reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
For a white, rich teenager living at home suddenly to grow a beard, adopt Muslim dress, and start quoting from the Koran raises at least the possibility that Walker was crying out for attention as much as he was tending to his spiritual needs. Don’t misunderstand me: there’s not a thing wrong with anyone’s becoming a Muslim. In this particular case, though, it strikes me more as an exotic form of teenage rebellion. Yet his family actually encouraged him, helping him attend religious school in Yemen, before he disappeared earlier this year - only to turn up in the fetid basement of a prison in Mazar-e-Sharif.
Not surprisingly, Walker’s parents are pleading for mercy. They’re going to need it. Walker could be charged as a traitor, which at least theoretically could lead to his being tried by one of George W. Bush’s military tribunals, which in turn could result in his being executed on a six-to-three vote. Newsweek, which broke the story of Walker’s arrest, quotes Walker’s father as saying that his son actually supported the terrorist attack last year on the USS Cole. “It was clear that he had developed a different point of view,” Frank Lindh told Newsweek. “My days of molding him were over.” Actually, it doesn’t seem like he did all that good a job in the first place.
On Larry King Live last night, Lindh said, “Well, I have to say, I’m doing my best to remain composed, but we’re all very, very upset with what John went through in this prison. It really defies description. And to think that our son, he’s really not much more than a boy, that he went through this horrible experience in the prison and who knows what leading up to that, as parents and as family, we’re very troubled and very concerned for his welfare.” He added that “John is a good boy. I don’t know of any information, any suggestion of any information, indicating that he’s done anything wrong.”Lindh was obviously speaking under incredible emotional pressure, and if your heart doesn’t go out to him then you haven’t got one. But consider. John Walker is not a “boy,” he’s a 20-year-old man, older than many of the American troops who are putting their lives at risk in Afghanistan. As far as there being no information that he’s “done anything wrong,” well, certainly, we don’t know the full story yet. What we do know is that he was taken into custody after the Taliban surrendered to the Northern Alliance. He took part, in whatever small way, in a bloody uprising that resulted in the death of CIA agent Johnny ” Mike ” Spann. And, when pressed by a Newsweek reporter as to whether he favored the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Walker replied, “Yes, I supported it.”It doesn’t look good.
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And so here goes:
You know what? Good. I’m glad he switched sides or whatever the hell you want to call it. I think that fan-freaking-tastic! Couldn’t be happier. And while I do feel sorry for his family for suddenly becoming the parents of someone who isn’t exactly popular right now (Maybe they could get tips from osama’s mama?) I can’t imagine that this doesn’t change the opinion of everyone in America on tribunals and things. It’s interesting to me how people can reconcile completely opposite views. For example, schools: People are all for testing and tracking and placement and things of that nature, until it means that little Johnny got a C. Now all of a sudden schools are touchy feely places which are starting to feel less like institutions of learning and more like daycare for teenagers. Please. Or those who want more prisons built and be tougher on crime and on and on and on until it is discovered that the prison they voted to build and campaigned so hard into existence is now going into existence up the street and now they are all freaked out. I want to yank these people from their beflagged SUVs and hang up their cell phones and take away their half caf skim Madagascar cinnamon lattes and knock their little soccer momming heads together until they see the fuckin light. URRRRH!!! Someday I’ll record myself saying that and mp3 it so you too can experience the cry of frustration that erupts from me on a daily basis. We’re back to ‘this is why I stopped watching the news’ if you remember that rant.
In other news, heard Uncle Dickie (ie Veep Cheney) on the radio today going on about the video they found in some house in jala lala la la, la lala la laaaaa bad or something. So how did they find this in a house? Are they going through every tape in every house they find? Did it say “WTC 2: Osaminator” on the side in masking tape? How did they just come across it? Anyway. Good to know he’s got something to do wherever it is that he ended up. You never see him anymore which makes me wonder if they’re just putting shrub out there as a decoy and hoping he’ll eat it so that Cheney gets to run things or if he’s just far too busy protecting his oil interests to bother with the standard veepal duties of attending funerals and cutting ribbons.
I’m sure I have much more to say on this, but I’m not going to right now. Just wait.
