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| Afghanistan |
| The Truth about John Walker Lindh |
| 2006-01-30 |
| From Kathryn Cramer ??, but Robert Young Pelton freelanced in Afgranstan for CNN I received this interesting article from Robert Young Pelton, author of The World's Most Dangerous Places, via email this morning. I gather it is under Creative Commons License; I present it here in its entirety. Much of this is previously unreleased material. Its appearance here may well be its first publication. The transcript of Pelton's original interview, plus video clips, with Lindh appear on the CNN website. This is his eye-witness account of Lindh's capture, in response to a recent campaign for clemency: The Truth about John Walker Lindh by Robert Young Pelton Robert Young PeltonJohn Walker Lindh aka John Walker aka Suleiman Ferris aka Abdul Hamid aka The American Taliban is a person that I will mostly likely to be associated for some time to come. I am sure on my obituary there will be a bombastic note that I was “the journalist who “discovered” Lindh after the battle at Qali Jangi” (the afghans have that dubious honor) Many have told me that Lindh’s story was a big deal back in the States. I will never know. I was in Afghanistan covering combat operations with in the ongoing war against the Taliban for CNN so I will never have the chance to the get the full impact of finding an American professing his love for the Taliban. To me Lindh was just an unpleasant arrogant kid who preferred to stay with his murdering friends. He was, in fact, the second Irish-American Jihadi I have met and interviewed. The first one was a one-legged psychopath who had been trained in the same camps and had fought in Kashmir, Kosovo, Bosnia, Chechnya and Liberia gave me his opinion. When I called him to discuss Lindh’s hejira, Aqil Collins simply called Lindh “a pussy.” When I returned from Afghanistan I was quite aware of the outrage he had caused. In a deliberate effort not to influence his pending case, I did only interviews in which I spoke positively about Lindh. Privately I warned his lawyers to keep me off the witness stand because I would send their little Johnny to prison. Wisely, Lindh copped a plea and I was spared months of inconvenience. Some people wanted a trial to get to the bottom of Lindh’s nefarious activities, among them the grieving family of Mike Spann. Lindh’s plea bargain denied them and the country of that truth finding. So it was left to me to set the record straight. My decades of travels with jihadis and terrorists, my time with both the Taliban leadership, the Northern Alliance (aka the United Front), Dostum’s forces — as well as my own time spent during and after talking to the players involved with Qali Jangi — lead me to believe that I am uniquely qualified to pass judgment on Lindh and to accurately describe who he was and what he was doing there. Now that Lindh’s father has decided to wrongly blame me for his son’s misery and seek clemency under false pretenses, I feel its time to reveal the truth. Quite simply, in my opinion, Lindh was a terrorist, a member of what we call al Qaeda, and a man who chose to stay with killers even though he was afforded numerous opportunities to separate himself from his murderous associates. Twenty years in jail may be a blessing compared to how many of his friends have been dealt with since. Frank Lindh cannot be blamed either for the emotions behind his need to reinvent history or for doing what he can to get his son out of jail. But he is lying. His son did not “love America”: He fought for bin Laden, against us. His son is not “honest”: He lied to his parents and others. His son is not a “decent” young man: He trained to be a murderer. His son went to kill strangers in a stranger land. A spiritual quest? What part of grenades and AK 47s can be described as spiritual? What part of patriotism is eating bin Laden’s food, listening to Usama’s droning hate-filled speeches against America, and sitting obediently within strangling distance of our greatest single enemy? Rest at site -- an insightful read |
| Posted by:Sherry |
| #9 bgrebel9---I read Pelton's book, too. Bottom line, what he said about Chechnya---There is no hope there, says it all. Pelton went into the heart of the beast of Chechnya and got back OK. A French reporter was kidnapped for a year and a half (IIRC), and committed suicide after release. I wish that the USAF obliterated those forces they had surrounded at Konduz. Mike Spann would still be alive today, instead of being killed by Johnny Jihad's buddies in arms at the castle at Mazar--Sharif. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2006-01-30 21:43 |
| #8 Robert Young Pelton is great, read "Three Worlds Gone Mad". Pelton travels into Grozny, Chechnya at the height of the Russian invasion there in '99. This guy has balls. |
| Posted by: bgrebel9 2006-01-30 19:56 |
| #7 No, he should have been shot in the field upon capture as an illegal combatant - and that fact (and the fact that he was an illegal combatant and thus not under GC protections) widely publicized. This would show that A) the GC does not protect these creatures, and B) this isn't a game - there is no 'start over'.... Now the LLL thinks that terrorists and murders deserve GC protection. A very bad precedent has been set. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2006-01-30 18:37 |
| #6 This part really really pissed me off::: “Privately I warned his lawyers to keep me off the witness stand because I would send their little Johnny to prison.” The “American talaban” should have been an example to all other propagandized LLL kids who think it would be OK to go saddle up with bunch of anti-American terrorist. Simply put he should have been tried quickly then executed on national TV. Key on Executed and Quickly whether that would have required special tribunal whatever it should have been done. The example now is if you are a US citizen terrorist you get prison time meaning the next 20yrs or so you get to spend propagandizing your fellow prisoners. Brilliant take a known enemy trained in terrorism put him in a prison with hundreds of pissed of at the man prisoners who are criminals and just may just may bite. |
| Posted by: C-Low 2006-01-30 17:59 |
| #5 Johnny Jihad's statement of facts, admitting guilt and allocating to his crimes is on the DOJ website. I don't have time to search it. |
| Posted by: Shans Grinetle6721 2006-01-30 17:13 |
#4 It was all in the letters that Johnny Walker read.In the Kram |
| Posted by: sleepyatthewheel 2006-01-30 16:52 |
| #3 Be sure to check out the comments following the post: What a pant-load of LLL idiocy! |
| Posted by: Xbalanke 2006-01-30 16:33 |
| #2 "In a deliberate effort not to influence his pending case, I did only interviews in which I spoke positively about Lindh. Privately I warned his lawyers to keep me off the witness stand because I would send their little Johnny to prison." Isn't this a description of influencing the case? |
| Posted by: danking_70 2006-01-30 15:46 |
| #1 Suleiman Ferris aka Abdul Hamid the magnificent now and hopefully forever in Federal residence. Thank you Sherry, interesting read indeed. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-01-30 15:15 |