Judge denies bail to ‘American Taliban’

By Larry Margasak

Associated Press

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A federal judge, declaring that U.S.-born Taliban John Walker Lindh “has every incentive to flee” from federal custody, ordered him held today pending a trial on charges of conspiring to kill Americans.

“No combination of conditions” could permit the 20-year-old’s release, said U.S. Magistrate Judge W. Curtis Sewell, turning aside pleas by Lindh’s parents that he be released in their custody.

After a hearing of around an hour at the U.S. Courthouse here, Sewell rejected arguments that Lindh presented no danger of flight and scoffed at his lawyers assertions that he should be released in the custody of his father, Frank Lindh, and his mother, Marilyn Walker.

“It may be argued by the defense that the defendant is a loyal American,” Sewell said, “but the evidence before the court belies that assumption.”

“These are not family ties” that should lead to release, Sewell said. Lindh’s parents did not speak with reporters, as they had during his previous appearance.

After his son’s initial appearance Jan. 24, Frank Lindh told reporters that Lindh “loves his country.” But in indicting Lindh and then arguing forcefully against his release, federal prosecutors and a grand jury said Lindh demonstrated a pattern of hostility toward the United States.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Bellows, speaking to reporters after the hearing, declared: “Our view is that John Lindh is a committed terrorist who not only talked the talk, but walked the walk.”

Brosnahan, talking to reporters outside, said he asked attorney General John Ashcroft not to use Lindh to take out his frustrations on terrorism. He said he asked Ashcroft to refrain from commenting on the case. “In my view they have brought out the cannon to shoot the mouse,” he said.

Brosnahan said comments Ashcroft made Tuesday at the time of Lindh’s indictment “violated the usual decorum employed by prosecutors across the country.”

Lindh, familiar to Americans from television images in Afghanistan with long hair and a full. scraggly beard, had his hair shaved close and no beard for his court appearance.

Brosnahan had argued that Lindh believed he was fighting the Northern Alliance, not the United States. “He never had anything to do with terrorist activities,” he said.

Brosnahan’s arguments mirrored those he made in a filing Tuesday. The government filed a motion earlier today arguing the opposite. Prosecutors said Lindh should be held because of a pattern of hostility toward the United States.

Shortly after Lindh was driven to the U.S. Courthouse here from the city jail under heavy security, the Justice Department filed a motion citing a number of e-mails written by the 20-year-old U.S.-Taliban figure accused in a federal indictment of conspiring to kill Americans.

In its motion, the government cited among other things a Sept. 28, 1998 letter that Lindh wrote to his mother suggesting that the bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa “seemed far more likely to have been carried out by the American government than by the Muslims.”

Brosnahan argued that Lindh was not dangerous, despite a federal indictment charging him with conspiracy to kill Americans, and said he should be released in the custody of his parents, who watched from seats in the courtroom.

Lindh, wearing a green prison jumpsuit, sat quietly, often turning to Brosnahan as the lawyer spoke. Government prosecutors vigorously opposed the motion, arguing in the court filing that Lindh posed “a grave risk” of flight and repeatedly expressed hostility toward his “country of birth and citizenship.”

The government also cited an e-mail that Lindh sent to his mother on Feb. 15, 2000, suggesting that she should move to England. “I really don’t know what your big attachement (sic) to America is all about. What has America ever done for anybody?” it said.

In a June 24, 2000 e-mail, the motion asserts, Lindh told members of his family that it was the United States which incited the Gulf War and that Saddam Hussein was “heavily encouraged” by an American official to invade Kuwait.

In a Dec. 3, 2000 e-mail to his mother, the memorandum said, Lindh referred to the president (George W. Bush) as “your new president” and adds: “I’m glad he’s not mine.”

Lindh broke off contact with his family in late April 2001.

The grand jury indictment issued Tuesday described Lindh’s role as a Taliban foot soldier in Afghanistan in the harshest terms. It said he conspired to “kill American citizens around the world” and “swore allegiance to jihad,” the Arabic word translated as “resistance,” “struggle” or “holy war.”

The indictment also maintained that on or about June or July 2001, Lindh participated fully in terrorist training after having been to ld early in his stay at the al-Farooq camp that bin Laden “had sent forth 50 people to carry out 20 suicide terrorist operations against the United States and Israel.”

Lindh will be asked to plead guilty or not guilty to the indictment at his arraignment Monday.