Longshot question: John Walker-Lindh

[aeolian]

A week or so ago someone posted an article here in GD which implied that there is definitive proof of John Walker Lindh's innocence: that his confession to being a member of Al Queda intent on harming the US had been falsified under coersion. Now, the article passed over this statement as established fact and did not elaborate, and I had not heard any such news before that (not that I don't miss things, mind you). I asked in that thread what evidence there was, but I got nothing save a bunch of posts reminding that the current US administration contains a lot of shady assholes. Yes. I knew that. That still does not demonstrate that Lindh's confession was coerced.


(I can't search, otherwise I'd link to the original thread and article. If you want to find it, I'm pretty sure the original thread was posted here in GD, and that "Walker" is in the subject line.)


So, oh ye who magage to watch and read even more news than I do, has evidence emerged showing that he is not a qaeda member, and that his confession to being a member was false?

Yes, I'm sure he probably got the shit beat out of him, and was probably not in great shape when he "confessed," but that does not necessarily mean that he was innocent. I'd like to think that he was just a dumb, ideallistic kid who got mixed up in bad shit and ended up on the wrong end of a special forces assault. But it's also possible that he was just a dumb, ideallistic kid who truly beleived in the fundamentalist dogma and felt it his duty to blow-up a chunk of America for jihad.



Er...I mean...Schiavo! Schiavo! Feeding tube! Feeding tube! Feeding tube! Pope!

[seemslikeadream]

1. Maybe this?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3324912

[aeolian]

7. Yes! Thank you.

That's the article I'm talking about. And the question I'm asking is about this line:

"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."

How do we know that?

[htuttle]

2. I don't think it was ever alleged that he belonged to al Queda, per se

His association was with the Taliban, via a madrassa type school he had been attending in Pakistan. To the best of my knowledge, he was never even known to have been in the possession of a gun, much less shoot it at a US soldier.

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

-- John Walker's Blues, Steve Earle

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. Walker was able to something that the CIA, FBI, NSA and all the

others couldn't, infiltrate UBL's camps. The whole terrorist label was pure distraction from the basic fact, that was all the guy was guilty of.

[happyslug]

4. He plead Guilty to what the Government could price

WITHOUT the confession. The deal his attorneys made with the Government is his plead of not Guilty to baring arms for a country at war with the US (Which he was doing even through he was fighting the Northern Alliance NOT the US). Once the US entered Afghanistan he was guilty of baring arms against the US or one of its Allies (i.e. the Northern Alliance). That the Government could convict him of with no problem and no need to use his confession.

Thus the crimes for which he is serving time for do NOT need to show he wanted to bare arms against the US, only that he was baring arms in a Country the US was at war with. Thus it is unimportant for the Crime he is serving time for to show it was his intention to bare arms against the US (Such Intent the Government would have to show to prove Treason). Thus whatever came up recently does not affect his case, he had the bad luck of baring arms in a country that the US decided to Attack (I know it was after 911, but again for the Crime Walker is serving time for the Government did not need to show he knew of the attack).

Also the Government for the crime Walker is serving time for, did not have to show he even carried a gun, but that he was serving in a military capacity a country at war with the US. He had undergone training by Al Queda and had volunteer to serve against the Northern Alliance. That was enough to convict him of the crime he is serving time for.

On the other hand the confessions were so questionable the Government agreed to drop all other charges for all the other charges required the Government to Prove hostile intent against the US (something the Government could only attempt to prove with the Confessions, confessions of questionable legality).

[H2O Man]

6. Correct.

This is the correct answer. Any of the other issues do not come in to play. This is the entire legal case. Well done.

[aeolian]

8. Thanks. Good answer! (n/t)

[Career Prole]

5. He was just a dumb, idealistic kid who truly believed

in the fundamentalist dogma and felt it his duty to:

A. blow up a chunk of America for jihad.

B. blow up a chunk of the Middle East for oil.

One we beat up and imprison, the other we pin a medal on.

[queeg]

9. So the CIA "rendered" him to Alabama to get confession?