I think his attorney is going to have a very hard time.
Thursday, January 24, 2002

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Wearing a green prison jumpsuit emblazoned with the word "prisoner," John Walker Lindh answered "Yes I do, thank you" in a federal courtroom Thursday morning when asked if he understood the government's charge that he conspired to kill his fellow Americans in Afghanistan.

The American Taliban soldier, his long hair and full beard shorn, stood straight with his arms at his side and glanced several times at prosecutors on his right as they outlined the charges against him. Walker's San Francisco lawyer, James Brosnahan, and several federal marshals stood behind him.

U.S. Magistrate Judge W. Curtis Sewell asked the 20-year-old Californian whether he understood the penalties, which could include life in prison.

"Yes I do, sir," Walker said in a quiet voice that could still be easily heard in the courtroom.

He spoke a third time when the judge asked whether he understood that he would be kept in custody until a preliminary hearing, set for Feb. 6.

"No sir, I don't have any questions," Walker said, still standing at attention.

After the hearing, in a sign of legal arguments to come, Brosnahan told reporters that Lindh, who was captured in Afghanistan, had "asked for a lawyer, repeatedly asked for a lawyer," from early December on, "and the officials who have commented on this case knew that."

But U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty told reporters that Walker had signed a statement waiving his right to counsel when he spoke to the FBI overseas after his capture. Defense lawyers already have said they would challenge the statement's admissibility because an attorney wasn't present. Walker was recovering from a battle wound at the time.

FNC
John Walker en route to cars waiting to take him to the Alexandria jail.
"These charges are very serious," prosecutor McNulty said after the hearing. "This is a matter that has the utmost gravity."

Heavy security surrounded Walker's arrival at the courthouse in Alexandria, Va., just a few miles from the Pentagon, which was extensively damaged in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Snipers stood on the roof and armed officers ringed the building. Those entering the courtroom had to pass through a second metal detector in addition to the one at the courthouse door.

Walker's parents, Frank Lindh and Marilyn Walker, who had met privately with their son and his attorney just before the hearing, sat in the second row of the courtroom to watch the proceedings.

"John loves America. We love America," Lindh said after the hearing. He said his son was innocent of the charges.

"It's been two years since I last saw my son. It was wonderful to see him this morning. My love for him is unconditional and absolute," Walker's mother said. "I am grateful that he has been brought home to his family, me, his home and his country."

Walker was represented in the courtroom by four attorneys, including Brosnahan, who spoke several times to the judge.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Kelley said the government was insisting that Walker remain in custody because of the risk that he would try to flee and because of his potential danger to the community.

Sewell, who granted the request, told Walker: "The government has a right to ask that you be held for trial without bond. You have a right to a hearing."

AP
John Walker in an undated photo from a religious school in Pakistan.
Brosnahan told the judge that Walker did not learn the precise charges against him until the day before.

Sewell then set the Feb. 6 hearing to determine whether Walker would continue to be held in custody.

Walker faces four charges, according to the government's criminal complaint. Those are engaging in a conspiracy to kill Americans in Afghanistan; providing material support and resources to foreign terrorist organizations; engaging in prohibited transactions with the Taliban; and providing goods and services to and for the benefit of the Taliban.

After the brief hearing, McNulty said Walker was being provided the full rights of any defendant in federal court, including the right to counsel.

"He has very competent counsel and we will work through the issues in due course," McNulty said.

Walker was captured in November in Afghanistan after an uprising by Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners. Two years after leaving his country for Yemen to study Arabic and Islam, he was brought under tight secrecy and security to the same jail in Northern Virginia where the only man charged so far in the Sept. 11 attacks, Zacarias Moussaoui, awaits trial on conspiracy charges.

The government's case against Walker is built around a criminal complaint based mainly on his interviews with the FBI on Dec. 9 and 10 and statements he made in a television interview.

An FBI affidavit said that while Walker was at an Al Qaeda training camp in June, he "learned from one of his instructors that Usama bin Laden had sent people to the United States to carry out several suicide operations."

When he learned of the Sept. 11 attacks by radio, Walker told the FBI, it was his understanding "that bin Laden had ordered the attacks and that additional attacks would follow."

Walker, who converted to Islam at age 16, said he trained for seven weeks in an Al Qaeda camp where bin Laden visited three to five times, giving lectures "on the local situation, political issues, old Afghan/Soviet battles, etc.," the affidavit said.