Posted on 01/20/2006 6:52:09 AM PST by yankeedame
American Taliban' tortured: dad
From: Reuters By Adam Tanner by San Francisco
January 20, 2006
THE father of an American jailed for fighting alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan said this morning his son had been tortured and unjustly punished amid public hysteria over the September 11 attacks.
"The maltreatment and imprisonment of John Lindh was – and is – a human rights violation," Frank Lindh told the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. "It was based purely on an emotional response to the 9/11 attacks, not on an objective assessment of the facts of John's case."
A 24-year-old Californian dubbed the "American Taliban," John Walker Lindh was captured in 2001 and jailed for 20 years under a plea deal. US troops ousted the Taliban after they refused to hand over al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
At times fighting back tears, the father accused US forces of torturing his son. He showed a photo of his son's body strapped to a stretcher at a military base in southern Afghanistan.
"I do not want to dwell today on the military's mistreatment of my son, but I will say categorically that he was treated in a way that is shameful to our nation and its ideals," said Lindh, an attorney at Pacific Gas & Electric .
"John Lindh did not need to be tortured to tell the American forces where he had been and what he had seen," the father said. "I cannot fathom why the military felt it necessary to humiliate him in this way."
Reviled by many Americans as a traitor, Lindh agreed to a plea deal in which he was spared a possible life prison sentence and all terrorism charges against him were dropped.
In exchange, he pleaded guilty to two charges of aiding the Taliban and carrying explosives. Now in federal prison in southern California, John Walker Lindh is appealing to US President George W. Bush to commute his sentence.
Frank Lindh said he was proud of his son.
"He was extremely unpopular in the United States and probably still is because of the way his case was portrayed by the government and by the media," he said. "People will come to realize that what happened in his case was wrong, that the torture was wrong, that the torture was wrong."
They should have shot the little bastard.
"jailed for 20 years under a plea deal."
Guess dad missed the part it was a "plea" deal meaning his son acknowledged his crimes and agreed to the negotated terms
I think the dad doesn't understand the situation.
Look I can't imagine the pain a father must feel knowing their son turned traitor against his nation, but please don't tell me this kid is some sort of victim. He was bound to that stretcher so he wouldn't get up and attack US forces AGAIN.
I don't know if it is guilt or what, but your son is a traitor, pure and simple... he's lucky he only got 20 years.. he should have been executed.
Hey Johnny...did you warn Mike Spann ?.....I don't think so...
duh..we only torture Arabs. /s
Only after waterboarding his raggedy butt.
Being an enemy combatant, captured injured, being strapped to a stretcher is NOT TORTURE.. what insanity runs through this guys mind?
He could have gotten a 9mm behind the ear. Consider yourself lucky.
Can you hear it? That's the sound of the world's smallest violin playing the world's saddest song.
I can't imagine his father feels pain knowing their son turned traitor against his nation. At worst he agrees with him. At best, he thinks it was a childish prank... you know, run off on a lark and do some jihad, like any other kid.
The kid is a traitor and should have been executed.
You know, I was seriously going to say "Look, this kid is an idiot and made a mistake of supreme dumbness. Chalk it up to youthful idiocy and cut the kid loose." But now that he's dropping these outright lies into the media, screw him. Let him rot the full 20. There's plenty of Muslims in prison - he won't be lonely.
"public hysteria over the September 11 attacks"
I guess we're suppossed to take the murders of 9-11 as just
another news item.
Now we are seeing perfidy does have a genetic component...
just like the recent legal maneuvering by Julius and Ethel Rosenberg's
offspring about "Bush's illegal spying".
Didn't Jihad Johnnie's downward spiral start about the time
his father left the family to shack up with another man.
I would suggest prolonged self-examination, but liberals are
about blame, not thought and reflection.
I kinda remember hearing that this whiner is a bay area attorney, .....that might explain things.
Straight out of the ACLU play book, Muslim edition.
The only thing tortured here is this odd man's little mind.
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