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Newsweek Reports American Taliban Met Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan
Monday, December 24, 2001
(7:02 AM ET)
The Associated Press

NEW YORK -- AP
John Walker Lindh, the 20-year-old American captured fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan, once met with Osama bin Laden while living in a terrorist training camp near Kandahar, according to a published report.

Citing unnamed sources, Newsweek magazine reports Lindh was given the choice between training for terrorist instruction or fighting as an al-Qaida soldier against the northern alliance in the months before the Sept. 11 attacks.

A Justice Department official told Newsweek that Lindh chose to fight -- an issue now at the center of discussions about Lindh's fate.

"There's still a lot of missing pieces," an official working on the case told the magazine. "We're trying to figure out exactly what he did."
(More: The Nando Times News Source)
2001 © The Associated Press.

Dan