American Taliban to Return to U.S. . . .

American Taliban to Return to U.S.
Wednesday, January 16, 2002
(9:41 AM ET)
Ted Bridis
Associated Press Writer

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said he supported the “difficult and complex” decision to place the case in the civilian criminal justice system.

WASHINGTON -- AP
John Walker Lindh, the American who fought with the Taliban, will be brought to the United States promptly to face charges of taking up arms against his countrymen, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Wednesday.

Lindh's transfer from custody at sea “will be in the very near future,” Ashcroft said, declining to be more specific.

Court records filed Tuesday said Lindh, 20, consciously betrayed the United States. Using his own words, the documents portrayed his evolution from young Muslim convert in California to Taliban warrior in Afghanistan.

In battle, Lindh's rifle malfunctioned, he was bombed by U.S. planes before surrendering, then he was shot in the leg during a violent prison uprising.

Court records also said Lindh learned as early as June -- fully three months before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against New York and Washington -- that Osama bin Laden had dispatched suicide squads to the United States.
(More: Associated Press Wire News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

Dan