American Taliban bound for trial at home

Associated Press

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — John Walker Lindh, the young American found fighting alongside the Taliban, will likely leave today for the United States, where he faces trial on charges of conspiring to kill fellow countrymen, U.S. officials said.

Lindh, a 20-year-old Californian, will be flown from the USS Bataan in the northern Arabian Sea where he has been held, the officials said on condition of anonymity. The officials would give few details, saying Lindh would stop somewhere in the region before continuing on to the United States.

U.S. government officials have said Lindh would be handed over to the Department of Justice and the federal court district in northern Virginia, where a Frenchman, Zacarias Moussaoui, is awaiting trial for alleged complicity in the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Lindh’s anticipated transfer comes as the United States faces growing international criticism over its treatment of Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners.

In Los Angeles, a federal judge agreed to hear a petition this morning from U.S. civil rights advocates challenging the detention of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. The Netherlands, meanwhile, joined Monday in demanding that the United States recognizes detainees as prisoners of war with rights under the Geneva Convention.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair sought to defuse press allegations of torture with a report that three British detainees have no complaints about their treatment at the remote U.S. outpost.

Fourteen battle-scarred detainees from the war in Afghanistan arrived on stretchers at the Guantanamo base on Monday.

Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Brendan McPherson said all the new arrivals were suffering war wounds but were in stable condition following postoperative orthopedic care at the Kandahar base and more medical attention during the 8,000-mile flight.

The latest arrivals brought the total at the camp to 158.

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