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Feds: Lindh Offered Regrets
Saturday, March 30, 2002
By John Riley
Newsday Staff Writer

"... it was a mistake to attack governments that are supported by the United States and that it was more effective to attack the head of the snake."

Federal prosecutors confirmed Friday that American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh expressed regret about the Sept. 11 attacks after his capture in Afghanistan, telling interrogators that he was "very ashamed due to the high death toll."

But, in a filing in federal court in Virginia, they denied charges by Lindh's lawyers that he was mistreated in an effort to elicit a confession and expressed skepticism about the sincerity of Lindh's efforts to distance himself from terrorist acts.

The record of Lindh's interrogation, prosecutors said, portrayed "a man who, even after the catastrophic events of Sept. 11, and even after the United States entered the war in Afghanistan, maintained his allegiance to enemies of this country, but subsequently claimed disenchantment with the attacks on the World Trade Center."

Lindh, a California-born convert to Islam who was fighting for the Taliban against the Northern Alliance at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks, is charged with conspiring to kill Americans and a variety of other charges. Friday's filing set the stage for a court hearing Monday on disputes about what information prosecutors have to turn over to defense lawyers.
(More: Newsday.com News Source)
2002 © Newsday, Inc.

Dan