Posted on 12/20/2001 1:34:03 AM PST by mdittmar
Prosecutors are preparing to charge American Taliban John Walker Lindh with violating a recently passed federal law that makes it a crime to provide support to terrorists, U.S. officials told NBC News’ Pete Williams. The Justice Department has apparently ruled out charging him with treason, given the demanding legal standard set by the Constitution and the difficulty of finding witnesses from the Taliban who would testify against Walker.
INSTEAD, WALKER is to be charged with providing material support to a terrorist organization. The maximum penalty for a conviction on that charge is life in prison, under the just-passed USA Patriot Act, “if death resulted from the offense.” By contrast, the maximum penalty for treason is death.
The 20-year-old Californian was captured earlier this month after a prison uprising during which CIA agent Mike Spann was killed by Taliban fighters.
Officials told NBC News that Walker could be formally charged within the next few days.
WALKER SPEAKS
On Tuesday evening, CNN broadcast excerpts of an interview with Walker in which he said he did not participate in the uprising, but was in a basement where many of his comrades were killed.
“I was in the basement the whole time,” Walker said in the interview, taped Dec. 2. “I didn’t see what was going on. I just heard.”
He called the uprising “a mistake of a handful of people” and said, “This is against what we had agreed upon, and this is against Islam. It is a major sin to break a contract, especially in military situations.”
Asked if the Taliban’s cause was the right one, he said, “Definitely.”
TREASON TOUGH TO PROVE
Some United States officials favor charging Walker, who goes by his mother’s last name, in a military court-martial, not a civilian court. But legal scholars say that would not be a good fit.
Gene Fidell, a military law expert, said a court-martial is only for a member of the U.S. military or someone who has committed a war crime.
“Apparently there’s no indication Mr. Walker committed what are known as ‘war crimes,’” Fidell said.
As for treason, proving that charge against an American citizen like Walker is particularly difficult because the Constitution requires either two eye witnesses to testify or Walker to confess in court that he fought against the United States.
The last person convicted of treason was Tomoya Kawakita, a Japanese-American sentenced to death in 1952 for tormenting American prisoners of war during World War II.
For now, Walker is in military custody on a Navy ship, and prosecutors have not yet decided where in the United States to take him to face charges.
“He is being given all his rights, which are far more than the rights the Taliban or the al Qaida extended to anybody living there,” said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.
Administration officials say the president is keeping close tabs on the case.
WALKER DENIED LAWYER
The White House said Wednesday the U.S. denial of a lawyer for Walker was appropriate because he is a “battlefield detainee” governed by the Geneva Convention.
Walker’s fate has been a growing side story to America’s war in Afghanistan, with a debate breaking out over how he is to be treated after leaving his home country to join up with the Taliban.
Some legal experts questioned Walker’s treatment, insisting he was entitled to a lawyer under the U.S. Constitution.
His family has demanded he be allowed to see an attorney. His parents, Frank Lindh and Marilyn Walker, have attempted to portray their son, who converted to Islam at the age of 16, as a misguided idealist rather than a hard-core Muslim extremist.
“He is being treated as someone who fought against the United States in an armed conflict, and that’s why he is classified properly as a battlefield detainee, and he’s being treated well,” said Fleischer.
Walker has told U.S. authorities he was a member of al-Qaida, the militant network led by Osama bin Laden that Bush blames for the Sept. 11 attacks, Pentagon officials said.
Methinks that, given the outrage that will follow any decision not to prosecute for treason, the Justice Department would not hesitate to go for treason _if they thought they had a chance of winning_.
The fact that they are reportedly considering not proceeding means they are NOT confident any Al Qaeda / Taliban fighters will speak out .. or that they have doubts about their credibility if they do.
It is unfortunate, IMHO, but I think it would be better to try him on a lesser, WINNABLE, charge and then expel him at the end of his sentence.
Mind you, I'm not a US citizen, so I can not feel as deeply as you guys do on this one.
Regards
Sadim.
You got that right!
What the hell?
Can't reach the "Whitehouse.gov website?
Is the feces hitting the air circulator already??
Good to see you in print again. I don't think I am going to get to excited over this "article"(?). I read and then re-read the article. It has me scratching my head as I can't find it from the source. It also has a byline crediting multiple sources including Reuters.
The line that really caused me to scratch my head was the last in the article ...
"Walker has told U.S. authorities he was a member of al-Qaida, the militant network led by Osama bin Laden that Bush blames for the Sept. 11 attacks, Pentagon officials said."
Libs and other agents provacateur always tip their hand somewhere in their words. "Bush Blames"? What part of the planet does the pinhead that wrote that line live? He/She/It more than likely are part of the crowd that believes this whole episode in our history lays at the feet of Anton Scalia and the SC.
The case involving Johnny Bin Walker is breaking new ground in American jurisprudence and having been around long enough to watch our legal system devolve into a cesspool full of the bottom feeding beings know as "lawyers", I am certain of only one thing: This case will have more turns than the OJ trial before it is over.
The case has been out of the Presidents hands since before it began. But most importantly I wouldn't get too excited over the ranting on this thread based upon dubious sources at best.
Again, blessed Holiday Seasons greetings from an old #Free_Republic partner.
HUH!
G.W. has the last word.
We shall see.
I think you like yourself WAAAAAAAAY more than is warranted and nobody here cares about your tin-foil hat conspiracy theories.
Oh, and please, please, please don't stop supporting FR, we NEED you to keep supporting us or surely we'll fold...You know, you're the most important person in America!
I'm sure there are lots of other crimes he can get nailed for. The Government must do everything in its power to extract useful intelligence out of this idiot. I for one would like to know how he was recruited and if there are any more like him in country. As much as I'd like to be on the firing squad, his picking out sleepers in this country and elsewhere would be infinitely more valuable. He'll be doing lots of hard time and they can always hang the death of Mike Spann on him which I am sure is a Death Penalty case (as well as sedition) if he decides not to cooperate.
GW does indeed have the last word as all Presidents do. It is called "Presidential Pardon" after the judicial process is complete.
And, again, the Walker case is breaking new ground and new precedence will be established from it.
The remarks to a cyber-friend, boomop, were only to suggest calm, which would be a novel approach here on Free Republic. A suggestion to let events, that we have little or no control over, play themselves out a bit before we start damning everyone and everything. But again, calm and patience are attributes that seems to be quite foreign on FreeRepublic these days. I sure didn't intend to put a burr under your's or anyone's saddle with my remarks. But I forgot, this is, afterall, the Free-for-all-Republic.
Merry Christmas
Boooooooo.
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