Posted on 12/02/2001 2:09:35 PM PST by mdittmar
A 20-year-old American who fought with the Taliban and survived a bloody prison uprising near Mazar-i-Sharif last week has been taken into custody by U.S. special forces troops, Newsweek magazine said on its Web site on Sunday.
A spokesman for U.S. Central Command, which is running the military campaign on Afghanistan , confirmed that a man claiming to be an American was in the control of U.S. military forces.
``Military forces in Afghanistan do have in their control a man who calls himself a U.S. citizen,'' Marine Maj. Brad Lowell, a Central Command spokesman, said.
``He was among the al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners; he was held by the Northern Alliance in Mazar-i-Sharif. He is injured and is being given medical assistance by U.S. forces,'' he told Reuters.
The man, described by Newsweek as ``a white, educated-sounding, apparently middle-class American,'' who identified himself only as Abdul Hamid, was taken into custody on Saturday at a hospital where he had been taken for treatment of minor gunshot and shrapnel wounds.
The special forces soldiers who detained Hamid took him aside for treatment and later left with him, doctors told the magazine. A Northern Alliance military source said the U.S. soldiers had taken Hamid to Mazar-i-Sharif, Newsweek said, adding that U.S. forces refused to comment on his whereabouts.
Hamid told Newsweek earlier he was a Washington, D.C., native but indicated he grew up elsewhere in the United States. He said he converted to Islam at age 16 and later went to Pakistan to study the Koran, Newsweek said.
Hamid said he came into contact with Taliban teachings while studying in Pakistan and traveled to Afghanistan six months ago to help ``because the Taliban are the only government that actually provides Islamic law,'' the magazine reported.
He fought with the Taliban at the siege of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan and surrendered along with hundreds of other fighters after the two sides negotiated a deal.
Hamid later was transferred along with hundreds of other prisoners to Qala-i-Jhangi fortress west of Mazar-i-Sharif, where a revolt ensued a week ago. The uprising was violently put down by U.S. warplanes and Northern Alliance ground forces.
Several hundred prisoners were believed to have been killed. A CIA officer was among those killed in the uprising, the first reported American combat death in Afghanistan.
YES, and I believe we can thank the Islamic Fundamentalist Clerics, teaching this rhetoric in USA mosques. How disgusting.
Right again ... are you sure you're only 18 ??? If only we had more like you ... (and less of him/her)
Funny you'd say that. I agree with rwfromkansas, I could have said the same thing as he...I'm just a bit more sophisticated in analyzing certain dynamics in my generation. That's the advantage of my being 24, his 18.
I agree with this wholeheartedly. I wouldn't even mind giving him a break (in his 3-4 vertebrae) for information. Long drops are far better than short ones.
Yes, but lots of Arabs overseas do, plus who knows who else in other countries spreasd around the world. Millions upon millions. Including the Palestinians that danced in the streets. So you have to draw the line somewhere, between those who actually were involved in planning and executing it, and those who simply said "they got what was coming to 'em." You've got to choose your battles, can't fight 'em all.
Maybe you should try to find some different friends.
The probability being: (1) a seven figure book deal describing his experiences;(2) possibly a movie if he picque's the publics taste for sensation:(3) the talk show circuit;(4) an invitation to the White House to show how tolerant the Bush administration is.
Later, the forgiveness movement will reach full swing and he will be elected to office. After numerous treasons he will retire rich and then die an honored old age. On the third day he will rise from the dead ascend into heaven and sit on the right hand of G*D. Later he and Bill Clinton shall come and judge the quick and the dead.
While you have have obeyed the laws(moral, legal and theological) and refused to be a traitor under any circumstances shall be cast into hell with its endless torments. The murderers, adulterers, thieves, frauds, rapists, sodomites etc. will be in paradise laughing at you and others like you. So there! Such is public America 2001 AD.
Thank you for explaining to yourself why he's NOT noble.
He's NOT an Arab, he's an AMERICAN.
I can more than handle it, I support it. As I have repeatedly said, he'll deserve what he gets. I'm still impressed with how he got there.
As for me leaving FR...I don't think I belong with Democratic Underground. Here's why. I believe in dismantling all federal entitlement and social welfare programs. Returning power to the people at the local and state levels, in accordance with the Ninth and Tenth Amendments. Limiting executive cabinet-level Departments to four: State, Treasury, Defense, and Justice, and their powers limited by a strict construction of the Constitution.
Not convinced yet? Try this. Abolishing the IRS and the federal income tax.
Repealing U.S. participation in NAFTA and GATT and protecting American jobs and industries with tariffs.
Restoring America's free enterprise economic system and preserving the sanctity of private property. Abolishing all federal regulatory alphabet-agencies including the EPA, OSHA, FDA, etc.
Withdrawing from NATO and the UN. Bringing all overseas U.S. troops home. Ending foreign aid.
Maintaining a strong national defense based on a policy of peace through strength.
Restoring the Western demographic homogeneity of the United States. Establishing a thirty-year moratorium (one generation) on all immigration, constructing a security fence along the Mexican border to stop the Third World invasion of America, and deporting all illegal aliens back to their place of origin. Reviewing "legal" immigrant-citizenship status, and repealing the oft-abused 14th Amendment. Re-establishing the 1924 National Origins Quota System. Establishing English as the nation's sole official language.
Repealing all gun control legislation, and reaffirming the Second Amendment right of all citizens to keep and bear arms in self-defense, and as a defense against governmental tyranny.
Abolishing all "affirmative action" and busing programs and reaffirming the traditional freedom of association of Americans by repealing the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1968 Fair Housing Act.
Restricting the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in areas such as abortion and "gay rights," and let the States decide these issues. Allowing the States to pass death penalty, anti-sodomy, and anti-miscegenation laws if they so choose. Ratifying an amendment providing for the periodic reconfirmation of Supreme Court Justices.
See why I wouldn't fit in with DU? I'm pretty far to the Right.
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