Iraq: Free John Walker Lindh!

[seemslikeadream]

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Free John Walker Lindh!
by Dave Lindorff, ILCA Associate Member

The young man imprisoned as an “American Taliban” was one of the first victims of American torture in Afghanistan. He was framed, tortured into writing a confession, and gagged for 20 years to keep him from talking. Now that we know his true fate at the hands of his American captors, it’s time to demand his freedom, and to hear his story in his own words.

Now that it's clear and admitted publicly that the U.S. military was brutally torturing people in Afghanistan, to the point of killing some captives in the process, it's time to demand that John Walker Lindh, the young man jailed for 20 years for being what the wretched ex-Attorney General John Ashcroft called an "American Taliban," be freed.

...

We know now that Lindh's claim that he was tortured into making a false confession to being a member of Al Qaeda bent on attacking his homeland was the truth. The military unit that was handling American captives where he was taken at Baghram Airbase (and that was responsible for keeping him duct-taped to a stretcher in a dark and unheated metal shipping container for over a week, with a leg wound untreated), was a torture unit, and is actually the very unit that was later moved to Abu Ghraib to bring its special skills to bear there. We know too, as I wrote in an article in the Nation and Counterpunch, that it was our new Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, then in charge of terror prosecutions at the so-called Justice Department, who arranged to have him gagged for an astonishing 20 years in return for having more serious charges against him dropped.

...

Where is the member of Congress with the guts to introduce a member's bill demanding clemency for Lindh?


Lindh himself can do nothing. The gag order inflicted on him by Chertoff makes it illegal for him to say anything about what happened to him in Afghanistan while he was being held captive by American troops, and he rightly fears that if he says anything in defiance of that order, he will lose any hope of early release on good behavior later on. Even his parents and his attorneys have to fear that their lobbying on his behalf could end up hurting his chances of eventual early parole. This is the ugly purpose behind Chertoff's shameless and calculating gag order (certainly at this point no one could argue that Lindh could have anything to say that could damage national security!).
more
http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2099&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

[EFerrari]

1. When Lindh joined the Taliban, IF HE DID,

we were financing their poppy fields. They were our allies.

Thanks for the link. It's about flaming time someone did SOMETHING for this kid.

[aeolian]

2. Question please

How do we know that Lindh was coerced? The article implies that there is proof ("we know now..."), but I haven't come accross anything like that. Not that I've read every word there is to read, mind you.

I'm not trying to piss anyone off (I hate that I always have to explain that), I just didn't hear about this. Link to a news story, perhaps? Thanks.

[scarletlib]

3. I think that there is good cause to believe him based on what

we know now was going on over there.

At the time he decided to plead guilty to the charges he did, he did so because of his attorney's advice. his attorney felt he would not be able to get any sort of fair trial and that the situation was to volatile to risk the abuse Lindh and family would be put through. the trial was to be in Virginia and too soon after 9-11.

His attorney felt the US Govt had a weak case against Mr. Lindh. I think the fact that Ashcraft/Bush decided to accept a plea bargain as opposed to a trial verifies that fact. Don't you think, knowing what we know about bushco that if they had had a strong case against Lindh that they would have insisted on prosecuting. No way they would have wanted to pass up on all the publicity from that.

[aeolian]

4. I agree there's a good case to believe him

but the article posted implies that it is "known," which probably means it was burried in the back pages of the Times on some thursday.

[stillcool]

5. I think the 'known' factor is torture....we 'know' we torture. n/t

[aeolian]

15. Can't accept that logic

Yes, we know that we've tortured, and in all likelyhood continue to do so. Yes, Lindh was treated awfully at the best, maybe tortured at worst. Yes, that's disgusting.

But that does not prove to me that Lindh's confession was false. His guilt or innocence and his obvious mistreatment are independant questions, ultimately.

[stillcool]

18. In this country a confession obtained under duress is.....

illegal. No more laws for us? Already?

[aeolian]

20. Relax, I'm not a nazi; please don't infer such.

The article implies that there is proof that he is innocent.

I'm not asking about what we all saw on TV, or about the legal decision, I'm asking about any real proof that he is innocent.



EDITED for clarity.

[stillcool]

24. Infer what?... what is up with....

the Nazi crap being thrown around? Where did that come from? I was only replying to what I perceived the law to be, if, in fact we are still a country ruled by law, which...

[aeolian]

28. ...

I'm trying to be polite. People on this board are prone to flying off the handle. I confess to having slipped myself in the past.

I'm sorry if I took it the wrong way, but your previous post seemed, to me anyway, as if you were trying to say that I do not respect the rule of law. I'm sorry if that was not your intent, but I've been called worse things on here for lesser semantic sins.

But my question has nothing to do with the legal situation. I'm not asking about the legal issues involved in his detention.

Ultimately, guilt and innocence are independant of law.

Did new evidence explicitly clearing Lindh come to light? If so, could someone on the internet please direct me to it?

[scarletlib]

9. well he was stripped naked, ducted taped and left in the cold

in pain in a storage container. he had a wound that was left untreated. that's what we know for sure from the reports and pictures that surfaced at that time. that's a damn good start to building a case for torture again, based on what we know now.

[seemslikeadream]

6. he signed the document only after being tortured by US soldiers

Back on Friday, June 12, 2002, the Defense Department had a big problem: Its new policy on torture of captives in the "war on terror" was about to be exposed. John Walker Lindh, the young Californian captured in Afghanistan in December 2001 and touted by John Ashcroft as an "American Taliban," was scheduled to take the stand the following Monday in an evidence suppression hearing regarding a confession he had signed. There he would tell, under oath, about how he signed the document only after being tortured for days by US soldiers. Federal District Judge T.S. Ellis had already said he was likely to allow Lindh, at trial, to put on the stand military officers and even Guantánamo detainees who were witnesses to or participants in his alleged abuse. >br>

The Defense Department, which we now know had in late 2001 begun a secret, presidentially approved program of torture of Afghan and Al Qaeda captives at Bagram Air Base and other locations, had made it clear to the Justice Department that it wanted the suppression hearing blocked. American torture at that point was still just a troubling rumor, and the Bush Administration clearly wanted to keep it that way.


Accordingly, Michael Chertoff, who as head of the Justice Department's criminal division was overseeing all the department's terrorism prosecutions, had his prosecution team offer a deal. All the serious charges against Lindh--terrorism, attempted murder, conspiracy to kill Americans, etc.--would be dropped and he could plead guilty just to the technical charges of "providing assistance" to an "enemy of the U.S." and of "carrying a weapon." Lindh, whose attorneys dreaded his facing trial in one of the most conservative court districts in the country on the first anniversary of 9/11, had to accept a stiff twenty-year sentence, but that was half what he faced if convicted on those two minor charges alone.


But Chertoff went further, according to one of Lindh's attorneys, George Harris. Chertoff (now an appeals court judge in New Jersey) demanded--reportedly at Defense Department insistence, according to what defense attorneys were told--that Lindh sign a statement swearing he had "not been intentionally mistreated" by his US captors and waiving any future right to claim mistreatment or torture. Further, Chertoff attached a "special administrative measure," essentially a gag order, barring Lindh from talking about his experience for the duration of his sentence.

http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1636&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

[SouthernDem2004]

7. "Jailed for 20 years" Huh? This writer needs grammar and writing lessons.

That or he is intending to mislead people that do not know who Lindh is...

[maxsolomon]

12. he WAS sentenced to 20 years was he not?

i agree, the kid was a footsoldier, a pawn. he may have been "taliban", but that's NOT the same as "al quaeda".

he signed the gag order so he could stay alive. otherwise he'd have been executed on TV by now. he'll be out when he's 40, and maybe then the truth will come out.

boy was he ever conveinient for the religious right - the "american taliban" meme was starting to stick to them, up pops JWL, and the label gets stuck on his hapless bonehead ass.

[SouthernDem2004]

22. Yes, I believe he received 20. Doubt he will do close to that.

[lonestarnot]

35. Do you personally know him?

[seemslikeadream]

8. WHAT ABOUT Jesselyn Radack?????

The Trials of Jesselyn Radack
Douglas McCollam
The American Lawyer
07-14-2003


Sitting in her well-appointed living room in a leafy northwest Washington, D.C., neighborhood, Jesselyn Radack seems an unlikely candidate for martyrdom in the war on terror. For three years the Yale Law School graduate and self-described soccer mom made her living telling other government lawyers how to stay out of trouble.

The 32-year-old former U.S. Department of Justice ethics adviser says she thought she'd be a career government lawyer. But that was before she decided to object to the government's tactics in the John Walker Lindh case last year.

Since then she's lost two jobs -- pushed out of her Justice post and then fired from the firm that had taken her in -- and now finds herself unemployed and in limbo. Her personal challenges are daunting: under criminal investigation, ailing from multiple sclerosis, and expecting a third child in January. But far from singing the victim's song, Radack appears composed and stalwart, telling her story with short, chopping hand strokes and near-encyclopedic recall.

And her story grows more ominous as new details emerge about how far the government will go in pursuit of one of its own


http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1056139907383

[SouthernDem2004]

11. She was dumb enough to leak government info and leave a trail...

What do you expect?

[seemslikeadream]

14. Whistleblower Charges Justice Dept. with Misconduct in Chertoff's Prosecut

Thursday, January 13th, 2005


We speak with former Justice Department attorney, Jesselyn Radack, who charges that department officials under Michael Chertoff improperly questioned John Waker Lindh and that her memos raising ethical concerns about his interrogation were purged and not turned over to a criminal court.

Michael Chertoff, President Bush's Homeland Security Chief nominee, was praised by Senate Democrats and state lawyers this week as being a tough but fair prosecutor who would serve well as Tom Ridge's replacement.
But as his record comes under fresh scrutiny, questions are being raised about his handling of the case of John Walker Lindh - the so-called American Taliban. As head of the criminal division of the Justice Department, the 2002 prosecution of Lindh was one of Chertoff"s biggest triumphs.

But the case resurfaced the following year in Senate confirmation hearings after Chertoff was nominated to be a federal appellate judge. At that time, Senate Democrats questioned Chertoff extensively about concerns that the FBI might have improperly questioned Lindh in Afghanistan even though his family had hired a lawyer for him.
http://mparent7777.blog-city.com/read/1005311.htm

[seemslikeadream]

16. Anatomy of a Whistleblower

Could you compare Jesselyn Radack's lovely but modest Tudor home, in a cool bower of leafy trees in Washington, D.C., to a jail? Of course not. There is her tall, handsome husband, an Africa specialist for the World Bank, pushing open the front door in the evening and planting a kiss on his wife. There are her two young sons, three and five, banging on the piano and slopping juice on the recently refinished coffee table. No, it's an exaggeration to imagine the 32-year-old Radack, who's pregnant—with a girl, finally!—as a prisoner. Just as overwrought as the letter Radack wrote about a year ago, when the D.C.-area sniper was still on the loose, saying that she felt "hunted"—not by the mysterious gunman but by her former employer, the U.S. Department of Justice.

But then, how to explain what it feels like to have your life stopped, to go from being a golden-girl government lawyer—who marched through Brown, Yale Law School, and straight into the Attorney General's Honor Program—to living under the drip, drip torture of a seemingly unending investigation, one that has cost you $30,000 in unpaid legal bills and stripped you of the profession that was you, or at least such a big part of you that staying home with the boys certainly isn't the "silver lining" that friends and family keep ever so kindly insisting? "I would want to choose to become a full-time mom," Radack tells me repeatedly and tightly, the implication being that it's a choice she never would've made.

Radack's home detention of sorts began in November 2002, when she was effectively fired from Hawkins, Delafield & Wood, the Washington law firm where she'd been practicing housing law for just seven months after being forced out of the Justice Department's ethics unit in April 2002. An agent from DOJ's Inspector General's Office had spent the summer poking around her new office, informing Radack's co-workers that she was a "criminal," suspected of leaking to Newsweek emails she'd written while with the government that were critical of the FBI's interrogation of "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh. At first, Hawkins partner Cullen MacDonald was supportive, assuring Radack that it was a "hallmark of a government lawyer to be investigated." But by the fall, he demanded she sign an affidavit saying she didn't leak the emails, or resign. (For legal reasons, Radack still won't say whether she gave the emails to Newsweek, but she did claim protection under the Whistleblower Protection Act, which makes it illegal for a government agency to retaliate against someone who may have gone to the press.)

Things rapidly went from bad to worse. Last January, the Inspector General referred its leak report to the U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia for possible criminal prosecution. That office wouldn't say what crime she may or may not have committed; though since "leaking" isn't criminal, the charge presumably would be "theft of government property," or some similar offense. The case was finally dropped nine months later, on September 11, 2003, but in early November, the DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility informed Radack that it had reported her to the Maryland and D.C. attorney regulatory authorities for violating confidentiality rules. The outcome of those inquiries won't be known for some time—whistleblowers are usually exempt from confidentiality rules—but even if Radack beats this latest rap, the damage to her reputation, to her ability to find work in Washington's close-knit legal and political community, may well be permanent.
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2004/01/12_404.html

[seemslikeadream]

10. Profile: John Walker Lindh

John Walker was captured after a bloody prison revolt

The story of 20-year-old John Walker Lindh, known as the "American Taleban", has shocked America.
Captured by US forces in Afghanistan with a group of Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters who survived the bloody Mazar-e-Sharif revolt, Mr Walker now faces charges of conspiring to kill US nationals and aiding Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

The question being asked is: What led a "bright and quiet" middle-class child from California to fight against his fellow Americans in a far-off country?

His parents believe he was brainwashed, and his friends say there were no signs that he planned to become a jihadi, or holy warrior, as he described himself to a Newsweek reporter.
more
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1779455.stm

[cynatnite]

13. Before knowing what I know now about him...

I felt that 20 years was too much. He was fighting for the taliban which I think is disgusting, but it wasn't against us.

I had hoped that members of the taliban would be brought up on crimes against humanity at the hague. If they think they guy is so bad, why doesn't he go there?

I came to the conclusion that it's because people wouldn't like what he told about his treatment by the US. What better way to silence him than to keep him under wraps.

What I've learned here tells me that I was right in the beginning.

[HEyHEY]

17. Wow, talk about shit I had totally forgotten about

[aeolian]

19. Yeah, really. The other day

someone mentioned Osama, and I was like "holy shit! Osama! What ever happened to that asshole?"

[Minstrel Boy]

21. "John Walker's Blues"

by Steve Earle

I'm just an American boy raised on MTV
And I've seen all those kids in the soda pop ads
But none of 'em looked like me
So I started lookin' around for a light out of the dim
And the first thing I heard that made sense was the word
Of Mohammed, peace be upon him

chorus:
A shadu la ilaha illa Allah
There is no God but God

If my daddy could see me now – chains around my feet
He don't understand that sometimes a man
Has got to fight for what he believes
And I believe God is great, all praise due to him
And if I should die, I'll rise up to the sky
Just like Jesus, peace be upon him

chorus

We came to fight the Jihad and our hearts were pure and strong
As death filled the air, we all offered up prayers
And prepared for our martyrdom
But Allah had some other plan, some secret not revealed
Now they're draggin' me back with my head in a sack
To the land of the infidel

A shadu la ilaha illa Allah
A shadu la ilaha illa Allah

[seemslikeadream]

26. Thanks MB

Be still my beatin' heart!

[Minstrel Boy]

27. Steve Earle is one courageous artist, and American.

He knows how high's the water.

Here's another of his, "Conspiracy Theory":

What if I told you it was done with mirrors
What if I showed you it was all a lie
Better be careful, someone might hear ya
The walls have ears and the sky has eyes
What if I said you were only dreamin'
What you wanna bet that all you gotta do
Is open up your eyes and you will wake up screamin'
When you realize that it's all come true?

chorus
Hush, now don't you believe it
Cover your head and close your eyes
Now, take it or leave it
Go back to bed
Now don't you cry

Half a million soldiers fly across the water
One in ten are never comin' back again
Fifty thousand sons who never grew to fathers
Don't you ever wonder who they might have been
What if you could've been there on that day in Dallas
What if you could wrestle back the hands of time
Maybe somethin' could've been done in Memphis
We wouldn't be livin' in a dream that's died

chorus

Go on and tell yourself again there are no secrets
Go on and tell yourself that you don't want to know
It's best that you believe that you don't hear the footsteps
That follow you around no matter where you go
Maybe you were thinkin' that it didn't matter
Maybe you believed nobody else would care
But once you've added every little lie together
You finally find the truth was always waiting there

[RevolutionStartsNow]

42. Oh Steve...

He played John Walker's Blues when I saw him in SF last month.

[scarletlib]

23. kick

[Wilms]

25. .

[candle_bright]

29. Free a Taliban fighter?

No thanks. For chrissakes.

He may or may not have been tortured, but that doesn't explain what the hell he was doing fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

[seemslikeadream]

31. Bush's Faustian Deal With the Taliban

By Robert Scheer
Published May 22, 2001 in the Los Angeles Times


Enslave your girls and women, harbor anti-U.S. terrorists, destroy every vestige of civilization in your homeland, and the Bush administration will embrace you. All that matters is that you line up as an ally in the drug war, the only international cause that this nation still takes seriously.

That's the message sent with the recent gift of $43 million to the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, the most virulent anti-American violators of human rights in the world today. The gift, announced last Thursday by Secretary of State Colin Powell, in addition to other recent aid, makes the U.S. the main sponsor of the Taliban and rewards that "rogue regime" for declaring that opium growing is against the will of God. So, too, by the Taliban's estimation, are most human activities, but it's the ban on drugs that catches this administration's attention.

Never mind that Osama bin Laden still operates the leading anti-American terror operation from his base in Afghanistan, from which, among other crimes, he launched two bloody attacks on American embassies in Africa in 1998.

Sadly, the Bush administration is cozying up to the Taliban regime at a time when the United Nations, at U.S. insistence, imposes sanctions on Afghanistan because the Kabul government will not turn over Bin Laden.
more
http://www.robertscheer.com/1_natcolumn/01_columns/052201.htm

[Deja Q]

32. Having forbidden fruity sex with them?

:shrug:

[aeolian]

30. Bump, because I'd still like to know

how "We know now that Lindh's claim that he was tortured into making a false confession to being a member of Al Qaeda bent on attacking his homeland was the truth."

[Just Me]

33. Worse. Was he MADE a "patsy" to manipulate a populace,...

,...into believing a fiction created by a faction determined to empower themselves,...by whatever means necessary.



Of course, distinquishing fiction from reality,...is a difficult course in a world controlled by fiction to begin with.

[aeolian]

36. of course he was

but that's not what i'm asking.

I'm only interesed in the fact of innocence or guilt of his being Al Qaeda and hell-bent on destroying a chunk of the US.

Just that.

Regardless of torture, legal status, political impplications, moral issues, astrology, rhyme scheme, or flavor.

What is evidence by which we know that the confession is false? The article used strong language to state clearly and confidently that he is innocent.

[seemslikeadream]

37. Maybe you missed this?

Bush's Faustian Deal With the Taliban
By Robert Scheer
Published May 22, 2001 in the Los Angeles Times


Enslave your girls and women, harbor anti-U.S. terrorists, destroy every vestige of civilization in your homeland, and the Bush administration will embrace you. All that matters is that you line up as an ally in the drug war, the only international cause that this nation still takes seriously.

That's the message sent with the recent gift of $43 million to the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, the most virulent anti-American violators of human rights in the world today. The gift, announced last Thursday by Secretary of State Colin Powell, in addition to other recent aid, makes the U.S. the main sponsor of the Taliban and rewards that "rogue regime" for declaring that opium growing is against the will of God. So, too, by the Taliban's estimation, are most human activities, but it's the ban on drugs that catches this administration's attention.

Never mind that Osama bin Laden still operates the leading anti-American terror operation from his base in Afghanistan, from which, among other crimes, he launched two bloody attacks on American embassies in Africa in 1998.

Sadly, the Bush administration is cozying up to the Taliban regime at a time when the United Nations, at U.S. insistence, imposes sanctions on Afghanistan because the Kabul government will not turn over Bin Laden.

more
http://www.robertscheer.com/1_natcolumn/01_columns/052201.htm

[aeolian]

38. No, I'm well aware of all that. But thank you.

I'm asking a very narrow question: specifically about Lindh, not about any of the bigger issues.

[seemslikeadream]

39. Why care so much about the guilt of Lyndh? He didn't give the Taliban 43m

or was part of

The Enron-Cheney-Taliban Connection?

...

The coverups are still very much a mystery. What were the documents that were fed into the shredder -- even after the corporation declared bankruptcy? What is the White House fighting to keep secret, even going to the length of redefining executive privilege and inviting the first Congressional lawsuit ever filed against a president? Were the consequences of releasing these documents more damaging than the consequences of destroying them?

Could the Big Secret be that the highest levels of the Bush Administration knew during the summer of 2001 that the largest bankruptcy in history was imminent? Or was it that Enron and the White House were working closely with the Taliban -- including Osama bin Laden -- up to weeks before the Sept. 11 attack? Was a deal in Afghanistan part of a desperate last-ditch "end run" to bail out Enron? Here's a tip for Congressional investigators and federal prosecutors: Start by looking at the India deal. Closely.

Enron had a $3 billion investment in the Dabhol power plant, near Bombay on India's west coast. The project began in 1992, and the liquefied natural gas- powered plant was supposed to supply energy- hungry India with about one-fifth of its energy needs by 1997. It was one of Enron's largest development projects ever (and the single largest direct foreign investment in India's history). The company owned 65 percent of Dabhol; the other partners were Bechtel, General Electric and State Electricity Board.

The fly in the ointment, however was that the Indian consumers could not afford the cost of the electricity that was to be produced. The World Bank had warned at the beginning that the energy produced by the plant would be too costly, and Enron proved them right. Power from the plant was 700 percent higher than electricity from other sources.

more
http://www.alternet.org/story/12525

[aeolian]

40. It's not that I "care so much about it," really,

any more than I care about the potential innocence of any prisoner. I'm just curious. I hadn't heard of anything exhonerating Lindh since the whole thing unfolded. I'm open to the idea that he was not Al Qaeda, in fact I think it's the more likely possibility. I'm just asking for the direct evidence that the original article seemed to invoke.

And no one has even come close to answering my question.

Yes, I am well aware of all the slimy shit that this admin. is doing. But that's another topic entirely.


:)

[chlamor]

34. Kick

There is so much to this tale that will never see the light of day.

No matter how wild a conspiracy you can conjur up the reality of what your government is scheming and doing exceeds the wildest of your mental concoctions.

[adwon]

41. You know

Why not just stick to Padilla? That is a clear cut, undeniable violation of the Constitution. Arguing to free someone who is a traitor in the eyes of the vast majority of America is not the way to win. Not only that, but just what was the kid doing in Afghanistan? How did he end up in detention in Kandahar? Seriously, unless one can show that there is some vast conspiracy to make him some kind of martyr, this case should be avoided like the plague.