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American Captured With Taliban to be Handed Over
Wednesday, December 5, 2001
(4:12 PM ET)
By Pauline Jelinek
The Associated Press

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld declined comment last week when asked if he considered Walker a traitor.

WASHINGTON -- AP
The American captured along with Taliban fighters is being held by Marines in Afghanistan and will be handed over to U.S. civilian authorities as soon as possible, the Pentagon said today.

How John Walker's case will be handled has not been decided, spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said. Lawyers from the departments of Defense and Justice are ``working on the way ahead on that,'' he said.

Walker was being held at Camp Rhino, the base for some 1,300 Marines helping in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, Quigley said. The timing of the transfer and where he would go were not clear.

Federal officials have limited their comments about Walker, 20, who gave his name as Abdul Hamid after being caught in a fortress near the northern Afghanistan city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
(More: OrlandoSentinel.com News Source)
2001 © The Associated Press.

Dan