BRILLIANT TEEN SCHOOLED HIMSELF IN ISLAM

New York Post ^ | 12/04/01 | JOHN LEHMANN and RONNA ABRAMSON

[kattracks]

December 4, 2001 -- The year 1997 was a critical turning point for high-school student John Walker. That's when he read "The Autobiography of Malcolm X," began wearing a white robe and turban, and changed his name.

The conversion of John Phillip Walker Lindh from California teenager to grimy Taliban fighter and U.S. prisoner of war can be traced to the year he spent cramming for his high-school diploma at an alternative independent school in the San Francisco Bay area.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Thats right. And the parents should be digging at the WTC site.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

His dad was quoted as saying he wants to go see his son in Afghanistan and give him a big hug and kick him in the rear for not telling him he was going to Afghanistan, or he would not have given him his permission.

Huh? He wired him money while over there. Hug? Give him a kick on his fanny? The parents are as foolish as the son. Firing squad.

Did not the parents aid and abet the son to commit these acts? They parents are terrorists.

[Kevin Curry]

His PARENTS PAID for him to travel to Yemen?? These people are pathetic.. they typify the parental movement that views themselves as facilitators rather than parents.

We could look on the bright side. Suppose he had had his conversion experience at 16 after viewing "Silence of the Lambs"?

Dad: "Well son, Hannibal Lector isn't someone I would choose for an example to pattern my life after. But who am I to diss your choice? All I ask is that you don't eat your mother or me."

[Magician]

This "sweet, smart kid" has bought himself a cell in Leavenworth for the next many, many years. Didn't anyone ever teach him the definition of treason?

[razorback-bert]

His father was an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice.

From the pmsmsnbc story.

[razorback-bert]

His father was an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice.

From the pmsmsnbc story.

[Quila]

The initial news story I read of this (just spent 15 minutes trying to find it again -- I could have sworn I got the link from freep) gave only the basics: He was with the Taliban and started running when the bombing started. I hadn't read much since then.

However, now I've read around a bit and withdraw my last post. He may have been Taliban, but was working with al-Qaeda (they are not the same thing), he was in the prison riot where he could have given himself up to the Americans there, and was one of the last surrender holdouts.

Because of his citizenship, a military tribunal can't be done, so I guess a criminal trial for treason is in order. I believe the statements of the President and the resolutions and laws of Congress since 9/11 constitute enough to say he was working for an enemy of the U.S.

Here's to a nice public trial of this traitor, and hoping that no one is successful at slapping the "victim" label on him.

[mvpel]

Okay, he's a highly intelligent person, and he agrees with the Taliban's interpretation of Islam, and says that they're the only people who actually implement Islamic law properly. Who are we, who haven't spent years studying Islam, to argue?

[Caipirabob]

I'd like to think by the "peoples" consensus, but I know that no such thing will occur. To go into detail would take more time than I have at lunch to list.

[mvpel]

Isn't waging war against the United States a way to immediately lose your citizenship and the privileges and immunities thereof? Military tribunal and then a firing squad would be too good for this US-hating piece of scum.

[Elihu Burritt]

Religion still has a vital role to play in the life of people. When you take it out of every aspect of children's lives, they are sometimes quite profoundly drawn back to it by their own instincts. What has bland and colorless atheism with reams of Political Correct idiot forms to offer in it's place? Nothing but idle entertainment for the non-thinking.

[Elihu Burritt]

I have a hard time believing his father was a STRICT Irish Catholic;

That married a Buddhist and let his kid be raised into Buddhism? Hardly. Next time, think a moment before you write.

[itsinthebag]

""The parents had moved from Washington to California when their son, whom they named after John Lennon, was 10, and had brought up their three kids to have open minds."

What a couple of bonehead parents.

How old are his parents I wonder? They sound like products of the '60s flower-child era.

[ladyinred]

This man was raised that truth is relative, there is no right and wrong, it is just whatever your opinion is. He had no structure, therefore he doesn't know boundaries.
They raised him to have an open mind, then when he gets caught being a traitor to his country, they cry that he was brainwashed.
Had they given him a solid foundation he might have made better choices, but to blame others now for the fact that they shirked their responsibility to train their child is just disgusting.

This young man will be the liberals Icon to undermine the war on terrorism. Any trial will be OJ& Rodney King all rolled into one.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Couldn't have said it better myself! If they don't charge him with treason, maybe we could invent a NEW charge. "Consorting with Powers of Darkness" or something ;0)

[ValerieUSA]

Reporters have no idea what "devout Catholic" even means. These parents are pathetic. They make me puke. They should suffer the same fate as their son.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Have you been paying attention to anything you f**king moron?

Well, I for one was paying attention.... read the rest, and see if YOU were paying attention...

He was in Pakistans military...

Actually, he was NOT in the Paki Military - he fought WITH it...

he was *training* at a taliban camp, but that hardly constituts as joining the taliban.

Actually, he tried to join the Taliban, but since he only spoke English and Arabic, he ended up training with the Arab Brigades of Al Qaida (ya know, Osama Bin Laden's TERRORIST group?)

I'm sure you've been in the same room with a homosexual at some time in your life but somehow i doubt that that will make you one.

Unless you have some odd fixation, this is a totally pointless remark...

And in any case, even if he was in the talibans army at least he's man enough to stick to his beliefs in face of a losing battle;

Blah Blah Blah... he's Da Man Whoo! Whoo! Whoo! Actually, he was trained in a Bin Laden Terrorist Camp - big difference between a Terrorist (who targets innocent men, women, and children), and a SOLDIER...

Now, pay attention, [insert your favourite expletive here]...

[ValerieUSA]

Go away. You are irrational.

[ValerieUSA]

Oops, my bad - the quote is "a strict Irish Catholic" not devout --- yeah, strict. sheeeeeeesh