American Taliban charged

The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — John Walker Lindh, the restless Marin County, Calif., wanderer who journeyed halfway around the world to fight alongside the Taliban militia, was charged Tuesday with conspiring to kill U.S. citizens in Afghanistan and providing support to terrorist groups, including Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network.

In outlining a case that could put Walker in prison for life, prosecutors also disclosed that Walker learned three months before the Sept. 11 terror attacks that bin Laden had sent operatives to the United States to carry out unspecified suicide missions, according to the criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va.

The current charges spare Walker the death penalty, but Attorney General John Ashcroft said prosecutors would continue to seek evidence to prove a capital offense such as treason.

Senior U.S. officials conceded, however, that they have been unsuccessful in directly linking Walker to the death of CIA agent Johnny Mike Spann, who was killed during a bloody uprising at an Afghan prison compound shortly after interviewing the 20-year-old convert to radical Islam.

President Bush, who previously decided with his advisors to have the Justice Department prosecute Walker, signed off on the criminal complaint before it was filed Tuesday afternoon, sources said.

Two of the charges against Walker — conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals and providing material assistance to al-Qaida — carry maximum sentences of life in prison, according to Justice officials. The other two counts would bring penalties of 10 years in prison.

The bulk of the case against Walker is based on his own admissions to FBI agents on Dec. 9 and 10, according to an affidavit by FBI Special Agent Anne Asbury. Authorities said that Walker was given Miranda warnings and signed a waiver of his right to an attorney.

When the United States bombed his group’s position in Takhar, Walker and others retreated to Kunduz, where a surrender was negotiated. He and the other fighters were eventually taken to an old fort outside Mazar-e-Sharif called Qala-i-Janghi.

On Nov. 25, Walker was interviewed there by Spann, but did not answer Spann’s questions. Walker told the FBI he was waiting on a lawn with other prisoners when an uprising began. Spann was killed and Walker, who denied any connection to Spann’s death, was shot in the leg.

Walker was captured by Northern Alliance fighters, who turned him over to the United States. Since then, he has been imprisoned on the USS Bataan in the Arabian Sea. U.S. officials began the process Tuesday of transferring him to the custody of the FBI.

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