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.
I wish I could be as charitable as you--I'm deeply suspicious that this is the press trying to shape the outcome of this case before charges are even brought. I don't think the Bush admin is unaware of these efforts--I noticed that they've been releasing more videos of the WTC attacks on 9/11, and more of the survivors are being interviewed. We should not forget what this traitor Walker supports when he stands up for the Taliban. The public needs to be reminded often.
Then again--should we be surprised? Many of the Nazi persons involved in the "Final Solution" 1942 Wannse Conference never did time for lack of evidence, at least one got time served, another did a handful of years. I was stunned.
Perhaps if we can't offer proper justice, I suggest we let the Northern Alliance put him on trial instead.
I'll bet his lawyers (which he's been denied aid and comfort from so far) would argue that it wasn't his intention to be a traitor and fight against the USA, even though he has said publicly that the Taliban is right.
What else could be next?
Sorry friends; flame if you must, but I'm leaning towards mercy for this pathetic, brainwashed kid. If anyone deserves killing, it's the father who abandoned him.
He did, remember, reject Marin County. He sought truth; he tried to repair the hole his parents left in him. The mullahs over there could see him coming and worked him over, their star pupil.
We are a Christian nation, forgiveness is our bedrock. I sense that this kid can redeem himself and pay back his debt.
How many of you opposed Vietnam? Central America? I did; I'm late to the table. But I got the chance to grow up. I'd be a hypocrit if I denied him the same.
Good grief! What do you have to do to get charged with treason. Sell nuclear secrets to Communist China for campaign donations or sumthin' like that?
Given the fact that he threw away his American citizenship, that is *exactly* what should be done. If they want to let him go - hey, it's their choice. He can't come here again, though. If they want to play the headless-goat game with his carcass, that's okay, too.
And I would like Bo Derick to move in next to me, and I'd like to find a diamond mine under my house, maybe some oil too....Sheesh!
One does what one can do! Period!. Don't you think if he could he would give him the maximum penalty?
There are problems with this prosecution as stipulated in previous posts.
1. Treason requires Walker to be a U.S. Citizen. Is He? Didn't he surrender his citizenship by joining a foreign army? I think he did. AND, it depends on when he joined the Taliban army. Before or after hostilities were declared. If before, he's an enemy soldier, if after he's a traitor.
2. No body said he can't be charged later with treason, they need to charge him with something now. This is the best thing so far.
Finally, for you. It's fair weather friends like you who almost caused a president Gore! You, sir, are giving aid and comfort to the enemy within...the Democrats.
Statements like "if he does this I'll never vote for him again", or if he doesn't do as I like, I can't support him are a waste of time and bandwidth.
Because...if you mean it, and Bush will most assuredly be the party nominee in three years, you are the traitor to the rebuilding of a conservative America and you might as well join the Dems now.
< /rant >
I don't know how he can do this, unless he can bring Americans killed by the Taliban back to life again.
One other possibility, they could have just nailed a "leaker"......
My vote is for Mr. Bush to allow Mr Walker to be extradited to Afghanistan to stand trial for his crimes against his Afghan guards and if the Afghans execute him, so be it. If Mr. Walker is just thrown in jail for the rest of his life in an Afghan jail, so be that.
Once the US has extracted whatever intellegence we want from him, he is just so much terrorist trash that needs to be disposed of! I don't care what his parents or the media try to portray him as.
Sounds to me like this article from MSNBC is a bunck of hoakum.
Why?
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