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It has now become an annual ritual, as predictable as an eclipse: Frank Lindh and Marilyn Walker come out before the media to extol the virtues of their son, Suleyman al-Faris, also known as Abdul Hamid. Don’t recognize the names? Perhaps you may remember him by his real name — John Walker Lindh (”Jihad Johnny”), the American Taliban. This year is no exception, and Frank Lindh and Marilyn Walker want to talk again to anyone who’ll listen, in an effort to get their son out of federal prison. This year, the story has been picked up by Amy Goodman and...

Nuradin Abdi was convicted in 2007 of planning to blow up an Ohio shopping mall. Iyman Faris was convicted in 2003 of planning to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge. Christopher Paul was convicted in 2008 of conspiring to use explosives against targets in the U.S. and Europe. All three terrorists worshiped and socialized at a small mosque in Columbus, Ohio, and, according to David B. Smith, an attorney for Faris, were part of a larger group of jihadists and extremists who frequented the mosque. The FBI now is investigating reports of links to that same mosque by Muslim-convert Abdulhakim Muhammad...

If it's December, it's time for the left to throw another shameless pity party for convicted American jihadist John Walker Lindh (aka Suleyman al-Faris, aka Abdul Hamid). Every Christmas season for the past four years, the Taliban accomplice and his parents have asked President Bush to pardon him. This country should save its tears and mercy for the defenders of freedom. The farther we move from the September 11 attacks, the cloudier our collective memory of Lindh's case becomes. Sympathetic journalists have rewritten the history, embracing him as a naive young hippie-dippie from Marin County, Calif., who was just caught...

If it's December, it's time for the left to throw another shameless pity party for convicted American jihadist John Walker Lindh (aka Suleyman al-Faris, aka Abdul Hamid). Every Christmas season for the past four years, the Taliban accomplice and his parents have asked President Bush to pardon him. This country should save its tears and mercy for the defenders of freedom. The farther we move from the September 11 attacks, the cloudier our collective memory of Lindh's case becomes. Sympathetic journalists have rewritten the history, embracing him as a naive young hippie-dippie from Marin County, Calif., who was just caught...

San Francisco, CA (AP) -- The parents of American-born Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh are asking President George W. Bush to set their son free before Bush leaves office next month.

He's a gentle man, lean and soft-spoken, careful to begin his lecture with an explanation of principles like the right to counsel. The passion in Frank Lindh builds only when he describes the details of what happened to his son, John Walker Lindh, the bearded young man who was tagged as the American Taliban. In the waning days of George Bush's administration, the senior Lindh is asking the president to commute the rest of his son's 20-year sentence, now seven years along. It's almost certainly a hopeless quest. Bush is not a man prone to second-guess himself. ... In retrospect,...

The father of John Walker Lindh, who has spent nearly seven years in federal prison for serving in an Afghan army, told a room full of law students at University of San Francisco on Wednesday his son has been used as a scapegoat for the faults of the U.S. government. Frank Lindh of Marin County spoke for the fourth consecutive year about how he believes U.S. troops in northern Afghanistan in 2001 illegitimately captured his son, known as an "American Taliban," for fighting as a Taliban soldier just after the Sept. 11 attacks. Frank Lindh said he believes his son...

War On Terror: After 9/11, Pakistan promised to close its radical madrassas as part of anti-terror reforms. Now we learn they're not only still open, but also recruiting and brainwashing American boys.All told, 600 American children are being indoctrinated into jihad in 22 madrassas across Pakistan. A U.S. filmmaker stumbled on them while tracing the path of the London suicide bombers. He discovered they attended the same radical Islamic schools. A congressional delegation has confirmed his findings. One particularly radical school in Karachi freely displays a banner at its main gate urging Muslims to join the Taliban. At least 80...

John Walker Lindh's lawyers and parents appealed to President Bush for the fourth time Tuesday to commute the Marin County man's 20-year prison sentence for aiding the Taliban in 2001, saying the nation has grown less fearful since then and that others convicted of similar charges have been treated more leniently. "John Lindh had no involvement whatsoever in terrorism or criminal activity," his mother, Marilyn Walker, said at a news conference.... "Others have received a lot less in the way of a sentence even when they were convicted of a lot more," the lawyer said. Bush has not responded to...

The concept of mercy spans testaments and faiths, and any system of justice requires the embrace of mercy for leavening and legitimacy. In this case, justice has been served by Lindh's time in prison. Now Bush is uniquely positioned to grant mercy, for while many will long argue over the effectiveness of his war on terror, none question his commitment to it. By giving Lindh a commutation, Bush could prove that his war is, as he often and properly asserts, not against Islam but against those who seek to harm America. Lindh never sought to harm his country; he has...

The war on terrorism reached into the Buffalo community Friday evening, when federal agents raided several houses and a store in Lackawanna and accused five men of Yemeni descent of operating an al-Qaida cell. The normally quiet neighborhood of modest homes and narrow streets was overrun by gun-toting police and FBI agents who ended a year-old probe with the arrests of the five men, all accused of providing material support and resources to the al-Qaida network. Disbelieving residents poured into the streets as darkness fell, and authorities searched apartments and cars before taking the suspects into custody, then cordoning off...

Excerpt - Don't blame Hewlett-Packard Chairman Patricia Dunn, her new lawyer said Wednesday, for the convulsions the company's board have suffered in the wake of its troubled investigation of boardroom leaks. "She's neither a lawyer nor is she an investigator," said James Brosnahan, the Morrison & Foerster litigator whom Dunn hired this week. "And she's not the kind of person, frankly, who would advise people to do something illegal." Dunn has come under scrutiny for her role in directing the troubled probe -- The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that she closely supervised it -- and she's the latest figure...

Frank Lindh, the father of a man now serving 20 years in prison for “aiding” Taliban forces, will speak to CU-Boulder students on matters of human and constitutional rights Tuesday, Sept. 19 at Museum Collections W100 at 7:30 p.m. John Walker Lindh was apprehended November of 2001, and on Feb. 5, 2002 he faced 10 charges, including conspiracy to murder Americans. As part of a plea-bargain deal, John pled guilty to possession of weapons and serving the Taliban army. As a result, all other charges were dropped. John is currently serving a sentence of 20 years without the possibility of...

TRUTH in the David Hicks affair remains as elusive as ever after fresh allegations this week from inside the US military that the Guantanamo Bay commissions are so seriously flawed that a fair trial is impossible. The most damaging blows yet to the commissions -- still supported by the Howard Government -- came from three US Air Force prosecutors involved in the trials who have quit the investigation in protest. One, John Carr, said the process appeared to have been rigged and that the first four cases -- including Hicks -- had been been "handpicked" and would not be acquitted....

I bring you my boo-freakin'-hoo moment of the day, courtesy of Esquire writer Tom Junod's nauseating profile of John Walker Lindh a/k/a "Suleyman al-Faris" a/k/a "Abdul Hamid a/k/a "Hamza." Junod laments an order forbidding Lindh/al-Faris/Hamid/Hamza from speaking Arabic and describes his typical day in prison: At seven o'clock in the morning he goes to work in the library. It is not a job that most other inmates want, but it suits Hamza, because all Hamza does is read and study. He reads and studies so much that people have to stop him from reading and studying, and sometimes his only...

In a prime example of not leaving well enough alone, the father of John Walker Lindh has now publicly asked President Bush to grant his son clemency. John Walker, you may recall, was the American citizen captured while fighting alongside Taliban forces against our troops in Afghanistan. Rather than taking a bullet to the chest or being beheaded (as Islamic jihadists do when they capture Westerners), John Walker Lindh plea bargained a sentence of 20 years in a medium-security prison. Now his father says that sentence was too harsh. In a speech to the Commonwealth Club last week, Frank Lindh...

John Walker Lindh aka John Walker aka Suleiman Ferris aka Abdul Hamid aka The American Taliban is a person that I will mostly likely to be associated for some time to come. I am sure on my obituary there will be a bombastic note that I was “the journalist who “discovered” Lindh after the battle at Qali Jangi” (the afghans have that dubious honor) Many have told me that Lindh’s story was a big deal back in the States. I will never know, I was in Afghanistan covering combat operations with in the ongoing war against the Taliban for CNN...

'Jihad Johnny' Linked to Flt. 63 Shoe Bomber America's Tailban traitor "Jihad Johnny" Walker and Flight 63 shoe bomber Richard Reid were recruited to do Osama bin Laden's dirty work by the same extremist Muslim group currently operating all over the globe to build an anti-Western army to fight jihad, one Mideast expert contended Friday. "The French newspaper La Provence reported Tuesday that Reid had been an acolyte of Tabligh-i-Jamaat," reports Islamic scholar Steven Schwartz in the New York Post. "U.S. media disclosed last week that Walker had been recruited by a San Francisco cell of the same group." Schwartz ...

Frank Lindh, the gay father of John Walker Lindh, dubbed the "American Taliban" after being found in Afghanistan in late 2001, lashed out at the mainstream media and politicians on both sides of the aisle in Washington during a fiery, and at times, emotional speech before the Commonwealth Club last week. Breaking a self-imposed silence about his son's case, Lindh gave the speech in order to reach out to the American public, which he said has been brainwashed by lawmakers, government officials, and sensational news coverage into thinking his son is a traitor to his country and an ally of...

After years of silence, the father of American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh said Thursday he has asked President Bush to grant his son clemency, adding that the then teenager never raised arms against the United States. "In simple terms, this is the story of a decent and honorable young man embarked on a spiritual quest," said Frank Lindh, swallowing back tears at times during a speech at the Commonwealth Club, a nonprofit organization. John Walker Lindh, now 24, was captured by American forces on Nov. 21, 2001, alongside the Taliban. Frank Lindh said his son thought he had been...