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The Truth about John Walker Lindh
From Kathryn Cramer ??, but Robert Young Pelton freelanced in Afgranstan for CNNI 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 Lindhs 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 Lindhs 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 Lindhs nefarious activities, among them the grieving family of Mike Spann. Lindhs 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), Dostums 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 Lindhs father has decided to wrongly blame me for his sons 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 Ladens food, listening to Usamas 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 2006-01-30 |
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