John Walker Lindh

John Walker Lindh

John Phillip Walker Lindh (a.k.a. "The American Taliban") (born February 9, 1981) is an American citizen who was captured during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan while fighting there for the Taliban. His capture made worldwide headlines, and the media dubbed him "Johnny Jihad," "Johnny Taliban," "Johnny bin Walker," "The American Taliban," and even "Ratboy."

Walker prefers to go by the name Hamza Walker Lindh today, although during his time in Afghanistan, he went by Suleyman al-Faris.[1]

Youth, conversion and travels

Walker was born in Washington, D.C., to parents Marilyn Walker and Frank Lindh. He was baptized Catholic and grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland, until he was ten years old and his family moved to San Anselmo, California, in Marin County.

At the age of 12, Walker saw the Spike Lee film Malcolm X which made a deep impression on him, and began his interest in Islam. He also became a devoted fan of Hip-hop music, and engaged in extensive discussions on BBS groups about the music, sometimes pretending to be African American.

In 1997 after his father left his family for another woman, Walker, age 16, started using his mother's maiden name and converted to Islam. In 1998, he traveled to Yemen for about ten months, to learn Arabic so that he would be able to read the Qur'an in its original language. He returned to the United States in 1999, living with his family for about eight months before returning to Yemen in February 2000, whence he left for Pakistan to study at an austere madrassa (Islamic school). Lindh entered Afghanistan in the spring of 2001.

Capture and interrogation

Walker was first captured on November 25, 2001, by Afghan Northern Alliance forces, and questioned by CIA agent Mike Spann and another agent at General Dostum's military garrison named Qali Jangi near Mazar-e Sharif. Later that day, the makeshift prison was the scene of a violent uprising, in which Spann was killed along with hundreds of foreign fighters. Walker found refuge in a basement bunker after taking a bullet in the upper-right thigh, hiding with Saudi, Uzbek and Pakistani jihadis. He was found seven days later on December 2, 2001, when Northern Alliance forces diverted an irrigation stream, drowning many, and eventually flushing out Walker and about 80 survivors from the original 300. Walker initially gave his name as "Abdul Hamid" but later gave his real name when interviewed by Robert Young Pelton for CNN.

Upon capture, Walker signed confession documents while he was held by the United States Marine Corps on USS Peleliu and informed his interrogators that he was not merely Taliban but al-Qaeda, though his father later asserted he was not involved in, and unaware of, al-Qaeda. John Ashcroft, on January 16, 2002, announced that Lindh would be tried in the United States.

His attorney claimed to the press that he asked for a lawyer repeatedly before being interviewed but he didn't get one, and that "highly coercive" prison conditions forced Walker to waive his right to remain silent. Although the FBI asked Jesselyn Radack, a Justice Department ethics advisor, whether Walker could be questioned without a lawyer present, her advice that this should not be done was not followed.

Trial

On February 5, 2002, Walker was indicted by a federal grand jury on ten charges, including conspiring to support terrorist organizations and conspiring to murder Americans. The charges carried three life terms and 90 additional years in prison. On February 13, 2002, he pleaded "not guilty" to all ten charges.

Complicating the prosecution was the nature of the confession. Photos emerged from Lindh's captivity of him being held naked and bound, wearing an obscenity-covered blindfold. When details of the conditions of his captivity began to emerge, it was discovered that he had initially been wounded and hidden for a week with limited food, water, and minimal sleep before being captured. After being captured and taken to a room with the only window blocked off, Lindh had his clothes cut off him and was duct-taped to a stretcher and placed in a metal shipping container for transportation. Lindh was not even released from the stretcher when he needed to urinate. Instead, guards propped him upright. When interrogated, he was denied a lawyer despite several requests, and was threatened with denial of medical aid if he didn't cooperate. It took more than a week in U. S. custody for his wound to be treated and the bullet removed.

The court scheduled an evidence suppression hearing, at which Walker would be able to testify about the details of the torture to which he was subjected. The government faced the problem that a key piece of evidence—Walker's confession—might be excluded from evidence as having been forced under duress. Furthermore, the hearing would turn a spotlight on the way that U.S. soldiers had conducted the interrogation.

To forestall this possibility, Michael Chertoff, the head of the criminal division of the Justice Department, directed the prosecutors to offer Walker a plea bargain: He would plead guilty to two charges — serving in the Taliban army and carrying weapons. He would also have to consent to a gag order that would prevent him from making any public statements on the matter for the duration of his twenty-year sentence, and he would have to drop claims that he had been mistreated or tortured by U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan and aboard two military ships during December 2001 and January 2002. In return, all the other charges would be dropped.

Walker accepted this offer. On July 15, 2002, he entered his plea of guilty to the two remaining charges. The judge asked Walker to say, in his own words, what he was admitting to. "I plead guilty," he said. "I provided my services as a soldier to the Taliban last year from about August to December. In the course of doing so, I carried a rifle and two grenades. I did so knowingly and willingly knowing that it was illegal." On October 4, 2002, Judge T.S. Ellis, III formally imposed the sentence: 20 years without parole.

Walker's attorney, James Brosnahan, said Walker would be eligible for release in 17 years, with good behavior. This is because, although there is no parole under federal law, his sentence could be reduced by 15 percent, or three years, for good behavior. In addition, Walker agreed to cooperate "fully, truthfully and completely" with both military intelligence and law enforcement agencies in the terrorism investigation, and any profits Walker might make from telling his story will be taken by the government.

Imprisonment

Since January 2003, Lindh has been at a medium-security prison in Victorville, northeast of Los Angeles. On March 3, 2003, Lindh was tackled by inmate Richard Dale Morrison, who hit him while screaming obscenities before running away. Lindh suffered a bruised forehead. On July 2, 2003, Morrison was charged with a misdemeanor count of assault.

Later reports on Lindh's imprisonment paint a picture of a studious and stable prisoner.

Hamdi v. Rumsfeld

The other American captured in Afghanistan in 2001 and detained by the U.S. military on the orders of the U.S. administration was Yaser Esam Hamdi. To explain the detention, the U.S. administration announced that Yaser Hamdi was an enemy combatant. He was taken to Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but was transferred to jails in Virginia and South Carolina after it became known that he was a U.S. citizen. On September 23, 2004, the United States Justice Department agreed to release Hamdi to Saudi Arabia, where he is also a citizen, on the condition that he give up his U.S. citizenship. The deal also bars Hamdi from visiting certain countries and requires that he inform Saudi officials if he plans to leave the kingdom. He was plaintiff in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, in disposition of which the Supreme Court issued a decision on June 28, 2004, repudiating the U.S. government's unilateral assertion of executive authority to suspend the constitutional protections of individual liberty of a U.S. citizen.

Media references

On December 12, 2001, David Letterman's Top Ten List on The Late Show was "Top Ten Excuses of the American Taliban Guy."

10. "Terrorist training camps looked a lot nicer in the brochure"

9. "I didn't join the Taliban, I was interning for the Taliban"

8. "I lost a Super Bowl bet"

7. "Dazzled by the Taliban commercials that aired during one of Kathie Lee's Ramadan specials"

6. "What kid doesn't grow up dreaming of being the next Mullah Omar?"

5. "Al Qaeda? Oh man, I thought I was fighting for Ralph Nader"

4. "Since when is fighting against your country with an evil terrorist regime considered treason?"

3. "Got tired of wearing clean clothes and not getting shot at"

2. "Like you've never joined an international terrorist ring!"

1. "Oh, I thought this was a paintball game"

Alt-country musician Steve Earle recorded a song about Lindh titled "John Walker's Blues," released in 2002 on the Jerusalem album. It was highly controversial due to what some perceived as its sympathetic attitude toward Lindh.

Bluegrass music band Hot Buttered Rum String Band sings a song about Lindh titled "John Walker Lindh". It is a somewhat sympathic song citing the Taliban as once being American allies and the inherent irony therein. Free recordings, like the following, can be heard on on the Internet Archive -- MP3-John Walker Lindh

Alternative Hip Hop group/label Anticon recorded a song about Lindh with DJ Krush titled "Song for John Walker". It was released on DJ Krush's album "The Message At The Depth".

In 2002, George H.W. Bush referred to Lindh as "some misguided Marin County hot-tubber." The comment provoked a minor furor and prompted a retraction of the statement by Bush.

four-stroke (band) has recorded a satirical song "suburban jihadi" partially inspired by Lindh.

External links

• The Lindh indictment
• Free John Walker Lindh – Unofficial website.
• "The case of the Taliban American", CNN: People in the News.
• "Profile: John Walker Lindh", BBC News (online), January 24, 2002.
• "Interview: John Walker Lindh's Lawyer" by Christopher John Farley, Time, January 26, 2002.
• "Black Like Me: John Walker Lindh's Hip-hop Daze" by James Best, East Bay Express, September 3, 2003.
• "Chertoff and Torture" by David Lindorff, The Nation, January 27, 2005.
• "The Crimeless Crime: The Prosecution of John Walker Lindh" by Frank R. Lindh, Washington Lawyer, May 2005.
• "The Real Story of John Walker Lindh" by Frank Lindh, AlterNet, January 24, 2006. – An address to the Commonwealth Club of California by John Walker Lindh's father.
  • Audio file of above speech (in RealAudio format)
  • "The Truth about John Walker Lindh", by Robert Young Pelton, January 24, 2006. – Reply by CNN journalist Robert Young Pelton, the first journalist to interview Lindh.
  • "False and misleading statements by Mr. Frank Lindh omits many known facts: Article of appeal" by Johnny Spann, HonorMikeSpann.com, February 01, 2006. (PDF file) – Response by Mike Spann's father.
• "An Exclusive Look At Lindh's Life Behind Bars" by Adam Lisberg, New York Daily News, April 2, 2006.
• "Innocent: The State of the American Man" by Tom Junod, Esquire, July 2006.