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From the article: "...trained as a Taliban soldier,..."

I thought that there was an allegation that Lindh trained at an Al Qaeda training camp. This statement seems a little less damning regarding the support the Lindh might have provided to the Al Qaeda.

Our country was perfectly willing to deal with the Taliban if their leadership had agreed to give up OBL. Prior to the Taliban's decision to protect OBL, there had not been a suggestion that the Taliban were conspiring with Al Qaeda to kill Americans.

The tortured chain of evidence tying Lindh to a conspiracy to kill Americans depends on these connections.

'"If any jury accepts the government's version that he was there to kill Americans, then the case is pretty much over," '

No.

The jury need only accept that he was there to help those who he knew were to kill, and had killed, Americans.
Obviously he was so, yes, the case is pretty much over.

This is why calling him "The American Taliban" is misleading. He was "The American Al-Qaida".

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.

Argue the hole, that which was not in evidence up until after he was captured and counseled by his attorneys.

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."

How about "Both A and B". Just because being bilingual came in handy, it doesn't mean that he wasn't personally thanked by bin Laden.

The defense says Lindh was treated like someone on display, with U.S. personnel on land and on Navy ships shooting souvenir photos.

All of which was a consequence of his own actions, freely taken. He wouldn't have had pictures taken of him by US soldiers if he hadn't left California for Yemen and Yemen for Pakistan and Pakistan for Afghanistan. Every single one of these moves and his actions following each one of them was entirely of his own planning. He has no one to blame but himself.