Posted on 06/13/2002 11:17:33 AM PDT by kattracks
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jun 13, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- John Walker Lindh left America, trained as a Taliban soldier, met Osama bin Laden and found himself in a war against the United States. That resume notwithstanding, defense lawyers want him seen as a misguided young man rather than a terrorist who hates his country.
Lindh's physical image already has been transformed. The infantryman who had long, unkempt hair and a beard in Afghanistan now has a neat haircut and black-framed glasses.
The tougher job for Lindh's defense team of former prosecutors is to cast doubt on the government's portrait of a man charged with conspiring to murder Americans.
Defense lawyers often present a criminal defendant as a good neighbor or parent. Lindh's team of former prosecutors has a far tougher job in building a new image for the 21-year-old, who lived in Marin County, Calif., as a teen-ager.
Lindh is charged with conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals, providing support and services to al-Qaida and the Taliban, and using firearms during crimes of violence.
In recent weeks the lawyers have introduced evidence and arguments that Lindh sought refuge in Islam but wanted to escape the Taliban after being horrified by the Sept. 11 attacks. They argue he was so afraid during his first encounter with U.S. Marines that he begged not to be killed after his surrender.
"What they're saying is, 'He's a clean-cut kid, just like your son, who maybe was misguided and got caught up in something he shouldn't have got caught up in,"' former prosecutor Joseph Aronica said of the defense strategy. "Now he looks clean-cut."
Lindh's chances of acquittal, in a district with thousands of retired and active government workers, may depend on the defense's success in changing his image.
"If any jury accepts the government's version that he was there to kill Americans, then the case is pretty much over," said James Clark, a lawyer who practices in the same court district.
Lindh became "disillusioned when he learned of the attacks on the World Trade Center and wanted to leave his Taliban unit but could not do so for fear of death," his lawyers argue in court papers.
Rather than the Taliban who, the government says, was personally thanked by bin Laden, Lindh is described by the defense as the captured soldier who pleaded with a U.S. military guard, "Please don't kill me."
The defense says Lindh was treated like someone on display, with U.S. personnel on land and on Navy ships shooting souvenir photos.
The lawyers contend that after his capture Lindh was blindfolded, handcuffed so tightly his circulation was cut off, shackled at his feet, bound with duct tape to a stretcher, stripped naked and held in an unheated metal container in freezing weather.
He was taken from the windowless prison, unable to distinguish day from night, to face an FBI interrogator, Lindh's lawyers said. He asked for a lawyer and was told none was available. To improve his conditions, Lindh talked - and allegedly made incriminating statements.
Jo-Ellan Dimitrius, a jury consultant who has worked for prosecutors and defense lawyers, said Lindh's courtroom mannerisms would be crucial during a trial.
"They're going to see a guy who is very clean-cut but ask, 'What in the world prompted him to go to Afghanistan and become a Taliban soldier?' So a different picture is going to emerge if he has any behavior that ties into Afghan behavior. That is not going to be a favorable outcome for Lindh."
The Lindh that the government wants remembered embraced the Taliban, swore allegiance to holy war and remained with his unit after Sept. 11.
"One can scarcely imagine a more profound betrayal by an American citizen," the government says in court papers.
Prosecutors say Lindh, who had bullet and shrapnel wounds, received the same medical treatment as wounded U.S. troops. He was administered a calorie-rich intravenous fluid, antibiotics, morphine and Valium. At times he had a blanket and a heater.
"While the Navy physician who was treating him had to sleep on a concrete floor in a sleeping bag in a room with a hole in the wall and hole in the ceiling, Lindh slept on a stretcher in a container that protected him from the elements," the government says.
He was given the same meals-ready-to-eat as U.S. soldiers. When a meal was found to have pork, Lindh, a Muslim, was given a substitute.
On the USS Peleliu, where surgeons operated to remove the bullet in Lindh's leg, prosecutors say he was given a second haircut after he did not like an earlier cut. His mustache was trimmed at his request.
"He and his fellow detainees were advised five times per day as to the time for prayer and the brig supervisor called up to the deck to ascertain the location of Mecca so that he could advise the detainees in which direction to pray," prosecutors said.
Lindh's father, Frank, insists his son loves America. The government counters with e-mails the Californian sent to his parents - who had unsuccessfully begged him to come home.
"I really don't know what your big attachement (sic) to America is all about. What has America ever done for anybody?" John Lindh wrote.
"I don't really want to see America again."
By LARRY MARGASAK Associated Press Writer
Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved
I have signed an Executive Order imposing financial and other commercial sanctions on the Afghan Taliban for its support of Usama bin Ladin and his terrorist network. The Taliban has allowed the territory under its control to be used as a safe haven and base of operations for Usama bin Ladin and the Al Qaida organization, who were responsible for the bombings of our embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania last year, murdering 12 Americans, nearly 300 Kenyans and Tanzanians and wounding another 5,000. To this day, bin Ladin and his network continue to plan new attacks against Americans, without regard for the innocence of their intended victims or for those non-Americans who might get in the way of his attack.
The United States has tried repeatedly, directly and working with other governments, to persuade the Taliban to expel bin Ladin to the United States for trial or, if that is not possible, to a third country where he will face justice for his crimes, and to end the safe haven it gives to bin Ladin's network, which lives and trains in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. These efforts have failed.
The Executive Order I have signed will deepen the international isolation of the Taliban, limit its ability to support terrorist networks and demonstrate the need to conform to accepted norms of international behavior. The Order does not affect humanitarian aid, food and medical supplies for civilian use. It is not aimed at the people of Afghanistan, but at the Taliban. Those who nurture terrorism must understand that we will not stand by while those whom they protect target Americans.
Source: Office of the Press Secretary (Clarksdale, Mississippi)
Every time this collaborator demands his rights as an American, people need to be reminded of the death and suffering that he and his associates inflicted on our nation that terrible, horrible day.
Anyone who would collaborate with foreign enemies to attack his own nation deserves none of the rights otherwise entitled to it's civilized citizens.
This sounds like the mentality of a lynch mob.
The rights to which civilized citizens are entitled exist in order to determine who is guilty and who is innocent, not as a reward for only being accused of a minor crime.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.