Posted on 01/21/2006 12:09:23 PM PST by voletti
SAN FRANCISCO: The father of an American jailed for fighting alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan said on Thursday his son had been tortured and unjustly punished amid public hysteria over the Sept. 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailytimes.com.pk ...
Making virtue outta necessity, eh? Taliban Johnny was caught red-handed in Afghanistan fighting US troops. The Bozo couldn't lie (Taqiyya in the islamic tradition) even if he wanted to.
They could have just shot the guy.
One name for this anti-American, terrorist-loving POS Lindh and his moron father: Mike Spann.
Well, no good deed goes unpunished.
A 'father' who wasn't there for much of his kid's upbringing (or so I heard recently on a local Bay Area talk show) is now concerned about the treatment of his "son"?
Oh please, Dad , spare us the tears.
"One name for this anti-American, terrorist-loving POS Lindh and his moron father: Mike Spann."
I prefer "traitor"
"..When Frank Lindh left his family in 1997, it was to move in with a male companion. Yep. ... The man with whom Lindh lived has since been described as "a family friend," but other family friends say the men lived as a gay couple.
It would take a specialist in family issues to map the constellations of feelings and problems that would describe John Walker's path toward Islam in 1997, but sources close to the family say the father's turn of life from married man to modern gay man startled and flustered the 16-year-old.
Given the pummeling that the Walkers and marvy Marin County have taken from the national press over their wayward son, you can't blame the old man for wanting to suppress reporting on his sexuality. ...
Luke says: Prager often blasts the news media for reporting gossip about people's private sexual lives. Today he blasted the media for not reporting gossip.
Journalist Ed Walsh writes on Medianews.org: "I thought San Francisco Examiner columnist PJ Corkery did a great job reporting with the Johnny Walker/Lindh item on Tuesday. Since everyone is speculating about why Walker would convert to Islam and eventually join the Taliban, I think it is germane that Walker's conversion to an extremely antigay religion came at the same time his father separated from his mother to be in a gay relationship. Walker signing up with the Taliban is like the son of a Jewish man signing up with the Nazis..."
Probably plans to write a book . . . no doubt building on his own status as a victim of homophobia.
So?
It is always amazing how the left twists words, when it is to their advantage. Humiliation = Torture, that is the message being delivered here. Sorry, sell it someplace else. The kid is lucky to be alive.
If one of my sons did what John Lindh did, I'd be too embarrassed to say anything.
If this so-called "father" had raised his son correctly, this wouldn't be happening. Sorry Pops! Your offspring is an anti-American idiot. Get over it.
If McCain's law had been in force then, talaban johnny probably would have been shot...
None dare call it treason. This is text-book.
Hey, don't forget, we are not that far away. I have to drive past Cindy's Sheehan's friends every Thursday!
Exactly! He should have been either shot or hung. He is a traitor!
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