Posted on 09/28/2004 11:42:55 AM PDT by GeneD
Filed at 2:14 p.m. ET
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- John Walker Lindh asked President Bush on Tuesday to commute his 20-year prison sentence for aiding the Taliban.
His lawyer, James Brosnahan, said Lindh was a young man in the wrong place at the wrong time. He said that Lindh was fighting alongside the Taliban in a civil war against the Northern Alliance, that he is not a terrorist and that he never fought against U.S. troops.
Brosnahan said the sentence should be reduced because Yaser Esam Hamdi, another American citizen captured in Afghanistan on suspicion of aiding the Taliban, is being released after being held for three years as an enemy combatant.
Hamdi will not be charged with any crime under an agreement with federal officials made public Monday. Hamdi will be required to give up his American citizenship and will be sent to Saudi Arabia, where he grew up.
``Comparable conduct should be treated in comparable ways in terms of sentencing,'' Brosnahan said at a news conference.
The request does not specify how much of a reduction Lindh is seeking.
Lindh's mother, Marilyn Walker, said her son ``has never had any sympathy or involvement in terrorist activity.''
Lindh, a California native, pleaded guilty in civilian court to supplying services to the now-defunct Taliban government and carrying explosives for them. He and Hamdi were both captured in late 2001.
Brosnahan said he negotiated the 20-year sentence during a time when a ``highest state of fear'' was affecting U.S. juries and he thought it was the best deal he could get at the time.
OK, let's strip him of his citizenship and dump him in Saudi Arabia... from 30,000 feet.
I always thought that we should have let the Afgans give him two years hard labor in what passes for a chain gang over there - with instructions that we expect him to survive basically intact. Then he could go to whatever country would take him, because we won't let him back into the States.
YEAH!! THAT'S WHY I SAW HIS TRAITOROUS WET A$$ PULLED FROM A TUNNEL IN MAZAR-E-SHARIF!!!
(World Link TV)
Absolutely correct, unfortunately he chose to be in that place at that time. You do the crime, you do the time.
I think I probably agree that his jail-time should be cut short...
...but probably not in the way he means it.
Dan
Hell, I think it's time we put that young militant Islamic ass of his out there in the general prison population.....
It was a lack of social "intercourse" with normal folks that led him down the path of his destruction.....
Semper Fi
How the heck do you get half way around the world and not know what your doing? He should have gotten the death penalty for treason or at least life! Too bad! His mother is an idiot! He wasn't in kindergarten pulling some girls hair. This is a serious crime.
If this was my son, I wouldn't even want anyone to know he was my son!
That's the interesting part .... to steal a Ron White line
Muslims are spirtually ready to die for Islam.
Muslims are NOT spirtually ready to handle jelly and tossed salads.
From the title, I thought it was going to be a story about Ted Kennedy...
See my tagline, then! (smile)
Thanks...I love that song!
Get out! He doesn't think too much of himself, now does he?
So as to encourage other anti-American jackwits to take up arms against our nation? I don't frickin' think so.
Lindh's mother, Marilyn Walker, said her son ``has never had any sympathy or involvement in terrorist activity.''
Bull. They knew that Taliban John was up to his ears in terrorist activities, which is why they made the idiotic Leftist/Victimist plea that poor poor Johnnie had "Attention Deficit Disorder."
I'll bet sharing a cell with Bubba has done wonders for eliminating Johnnie's "attention deficit."
You made your bed, Taliban John. Now rot in it.
Lindh might have found a lawyer who at least would not be loathed in Republican circles to make his plea for mercy.
She's probably past the age, and if we keep him in prsion, he won't either, thereby pruning a defective branch from the human race's family tree.
We should have just hanged the b*st*rd, but since we didn't, it seems a shame to waste prison space on this traitor. I suggest one of the following options:
- Strip him of his citizenship and return him to Afghanistan.
- Commute the rest of his sentence on condition that he serves five years of honorable service with the United States Marine Corps.
Normally, I would never propose the second option, but it would positively enrage his loopy Marin County parents and the entire Bay Area.
On second thought, forget it. Mike Spann didn't get a second chance, and this traitor didn't help Spann when he was caught. Cut his sentence in half and release him into the general population at Riker's Island. Courage!
"She's a Marin Country dingbat rusty Volvo wagon-driving DU.com earth hippie faux-Buddhist pothead MOVEON.org ctrystal healer who married a fairy and produced a Taliban-loving ratboy who adopted fundamentalist Islam during a 'phase they though he'd grow out of on his own'."
You forgot "dirty-foot, commiefornia, pinko, a$$hole"!!!
Get it right! :-)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.