He's A Really Good Boy

msnbc.com ^ | 12/2/01 | Colin Soloway

[anniegetyourgun]

Dec. 2 — The parents of the so-called American Taliban expressed shock and disbelief at the news that their son, missing for seven months in Pakistan, had turned up in a fortress in Northern Afghanistan, as a prisoner of the Northern Alliance and a survivor of a vicious prison uprising that left one American CIA agent and hundreds of foreign fighters dead.

ABDUL HAMID, who spoke with a Newsweek journalist on Saturday afternoon in the fortress of Kala Jangi in Northern Afghanistan, has been identified by his parents as John Phillip Walker Lindh, 20, of Northern California. Walker (he uses his mother’s last name), was taken into custody by U.S. Special Forces late Saturday night at a hospital near Mazar-e-Sharif, in Northern Afghanistan. He is the only American to be captured fighting for the Taliban. His parents have contacted officials at the U.S. State Department and the U.S. embassy in Pakistan but say they have been given no word on his condition or location.

Marilyn Walker describes her son as a “sweet, shy, kid,” who had wanted to work with poor people and perhaps go into medicine. “Everyone who knows him loves him,” she says. “Everyone expected him to become a scholar.”

Walker said on Sunday that the photo of her son that appeared on Newsweek.MSNBC.com was the first indication that she had of his whereabouts since he left a religious school, or Madrassah, in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province, where he had been studying the Quran, seven months earlier.

“I last talked with him at the end of April,” she says. “He said he was going to be moving somewhere cooler for the summer.”

She never heard from him again. Instead of going to study in the mountains of Pakistan, John Walker told Newsweek he had traveled across the border to Afghanistan to help the Taliban build a “pure Islamic state.” He told CNN that he had gone to the Afghan capital Kabul and volunteered with the Taliban. Because he didn’t know the local languages, he said, the Taliban told him to contact forces supporting Osama bin Laden. He said he had received combat training at a camp in Northern Afghanistan, had fought with the Pakistani allies of the Taliban in the disputed region of Kashmir and then returned to fight recently with the Taliban at Konduz.

Marilyn Walker paints a portrait of her son as an intelligent, articulate young man with a gift for languages and a commitment to social justice. John Walker was born in Washington, D.C., in February 1981. He is the second of three children of a home health care worker and a lawyer, Frank Lindh. His mother says he spent the first ten years of his life in the Washington suburbs of Maryland. His family moved to Northern California in 1991.

At the age of 16 he converted to Islam. His mother says she does not know why John embraced the religion. Although he was raised as a Catholic, his mother says he was exposed to her following of Buddhist teachings. “It’s very inclusive of all people and [has] a sense of social justice,” she says.

John’s father Frank Lindh, who is divorced from Marilyn Walker, says that his son took to Islam naturally. “I told him once that maybe he was always a Muslim, because he had clearly found something important for him there,” Lindh told Newsweek.

At age 18 John traveled to Sinna, in Yemen, to learn Arabic. He then moved on to Pakistan and a Madrassah in the village of Bannu, where in addition to working to memorize the Quran, he taught himself some of the Urdu and Pashto languages. Frank Lindh says his son’s study of languages and his dedication to his religious studies makes him proud.

“I support him and his studies,” he says. “He’s learned Arabic, and is memorizing the Quran. He’s a very good scholar.”

John Lindh told Newsweek that in the course of his studies in Pakistan he had met Taliban members and some of the former teachers of the Taliban leadership. These encounters may have helped to convince him that, as he said, Taliban-controlled Afghanistan was the only true Islamic state in the Muslim world.

His mother said that in some ways, his fascination with the Taliban could have been a quest for purity. “In studying Islam he wanted to study somewhere where it is practiced in its purest form,” she says.

But Walker says she was shocked by her son’s statements of support for the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. She says he had never expressed any interest in the Taliban or a any other militant version of Islam. “If he got involved with the Taliban, he must have been brainwashed,” she says. “He was isolated. He didn’t know a soul in Pakistan. When you’re young and impressionable, it’s easy to be led by charismatic people.”

She pointed out that he went to Pakistan with an Islamic humanitarian aid group as part of his commitment to working with the poor.

“That’s where his heart is,” she says. “I think if he got caught up with Taliban people, it’s because they sucked that part of him in.”

Even harder for her to fathom is the idea of her son as a volunteer fighting for the Taliban. “I can’t imagine him in the uprising (in the prison),” she says. “This is a kid who would freeze [out of fear]. This is my shy kid. He’s totally not streetwise.”

To CNN, Walker described himself as a “jihadi,” a holy warrior. “People he knew from the mosque here are just shocked,” she says.” They just can’t believe it.”

Now that they know their son is alive, Lindh and Walker are desperate to find out where he is. His parents say they are working to find legal representation for him. They do not know if he has been, or will be, charged with a crime, or if so, in what jurisdiction he will be tried. No matter what, says Lindh, they will stand by their son.

“I’m proud of John,” he says. “He’s a really good boy. A really sweet boy.”

[anniegetyourgun]

Ping.

[okie_tech]

He's a nut job, hope they kill him.

[kingh99]

NoCal water baby. They have these kids underwater and look what happens. Al Zahwiri did his last tour, "The Monster Mosque 92" in NoCal. This Hahed a$$hole needs to be thoroughly interrogated.

[TomServo]

Already posted Here.

[Jerry_M]

He will be a really "good boy" once he is swinging from a rope.

[OldFriend]

A murdering lowlife scum is more like it.

[anniegetyourgun]

Why is it the search function only seems to work about 90% of the time. I did search on this exact title. Oh well, we can clean this one up.

[SCalGal]

Treason.

[CharlieDarwin]

Strike a blow for Natural Selection. Kill him.

[EternalVigilance]

...his mother says he was exposed to her following of Buddhist teachings....

From one deception to another...

“It’s very inclusive of all people and [has] a sense of social justice,” she says.

With her repeated use of the buzz words 'inclusive', and 'social justice', it's obvious that this whacko mother is a big-time left-wing DemocRAT.

Kind of like the Columbine mass murderers...nurtured in the same sort of atmosphere..."oh, if you think it's ok, Johnny...go ahead...we'll support you, no matter what..."

[techcor]

It's begining to look like joining the Taliban young becomes an automatic Darwin Award. The news media doesn't get it though.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Right, really sweet boy. And adolf just had a bad hair day. When will people stop looking at the external and look at the source? Never.

[SuziQ]

His mother said that in some ways, his fascination with the Taliban could have been a quest for purity. “In studying Islam he wanted to study somewhere where it is practiced in its purest form,” she says.

Unfortunately, fanatics are usually dangerous. He kind of reminds me of those 'pure' SS goose-steppers under Hitler!

[NC_Libertarian]

As a US citizen can he be tried for treason?

[Jack Black]

"Treason".

Wouldn't we have had to declare war for this to be legal treason? As it is we were conducting a police action and he was caught up in the sweep of things. From the ground he only saw Northern Alliance troops.

This is not to say he's not an idiot, he is. But I am really curious about what grounds they will try him on. Perhaps they will invoke the military tribunal for him?

[anniegetyourgun]

Californian among Taliban in prison uprising - Seattle Times News Services

A California woman whose son has been captured in northern Afghanistan fighting for the Taliban says he must have been "brainwashed."

In an interview posted on Newsweek magazine's Web site last night, Marilyn Walker described her son, John Philip Walker Lindh, 20, of Fairfax, Calif., as a "sweet, shy kid" who had gone to Pakistan with an Islamic humanitarian group to help the poor.

Lindh was among more than 80 Taliban fighters who straggled out of a flooded basement Saturday, days after their prison rebellion was crushed in Mazar-e-Sharif.

She said the reports of his capture were the first news she had of her son's whereabouts in the seven months since he left a religious school in northwestern Pakistan, where he had been studying the Koran.

"If he got involved in the Taliban, he must have been brainwashed," she said. "He was isolated. He didn't know a soul in Pakistan. When you're young and impressionable, it's easy to be led by charismatic people."

Newsweek said that in an interview Saturday, Lindh said he had spent the past six months fighting for the Taliban because "the Taliban are the only government that actually provides Islamic law."

Family friends said Lindh attended high school near the family's home in San Anselmo, Calif., a leafy and wealthy suburb in Marin County across the bay from San Francisco.

After his switch, at 16, to Islam, a move made with the grudging acceptance of his parents, Lindh asked to be called Abdul Hamid. His parents supported the conversion out of a belief that their son needed to chart his own course.

"It isn't what they would have chosen for him," said Bill Jones, a family friend. "They sort of shrugged it off. It was an attitude of, 'This is strange, but we'll support it.' They thought it was good he was into spirituality and helping people."

Though he had kept in fairly regular touch with his family, Lindh suddenly dropped from sight earlier this year, Jones said.

"This had been a terrifying time for his family," Jones said. "They hadn't heard from him in six months."

Jones said he had discussed the situation with both parents — Lindh's father, Frank Lindh, and mother are divorced. They came to his house to watch television coverage. Searching for explanations, the parents could reason only that their son had been brainwashed, coerced into joining the fight, Jones said.

"We feel it was almost like a Patty Hearst thing," Jones said.

CNN reported that Lindh was being treated by the Red Cross in Mazar-e-Sharif for grenade and bullet wounds, but Army Lt. Col. Jim Cassella, a Pentagon spokesman, said only that he was being given medical assistance by U.S. forces at an undisclosed location.

[Walkin Man]

The body of CIA officer Johnny Mike Spann is carried by a Marine honor guard from an Air Force aircraft December 2, 2001 at Andrews Air Force Base. Spann was the first known American combat death in the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan. (Joe Marquette/Pool via Reuters)

Alison Spann, the daughter of CIA Officer Johnny Michael Spann is comforted by Stephanie Glakas Tenet, wife of CIA director George J. Tenet, as the remains of CIA officer Spann, killed during a prison uprising in northern Afghanistan, returned to Andrews Air Force Base, December 2, 2001. Spann was the first known American combat death in the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan. (Joe Marquette/Pool via Reuters)

Air Force Brig. General Glenn Spears escorts Shannon Spann, the widow of CIA officer Johnny Mike Spann, at Andrews Air Force Base, December 2, 2001. Spann was the first known American combat death in the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan, which is aimed at destroying Osama bin Laden, his al Qaeda network and the Afghan Taliban movement, which sheltered him. REUTERS/POOL/Joe Marquette

Heres what that "sweet, shy, helper of the poor did! He could have capped Johnny Spann himself! A hanging is too good for scum like Walker!