John Walker Lindh, American Martyr by Matt Giwer, © 2002 [July]
Does anyone remember John Walker Lindh? Anyone? He is accused of conspiracy to murder United States nationals. A conspiracy requires at least one overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy. It is alleged he was a member of the Taliban not Al Qaeda. He likely was. The press has nicknamed him the American Taliban. Al Qaeda not the Taliban is alleged to have conspired to murder Americans on 9/11. By inspection he was not involved in the conspiracy of 9/11. This leaves the possibility of his resistance to the US and its Northern Alliance Allies which is presumed and likely. They were both trying to kill him and they initiated the immediate hostilities. He was captured by Northern Alliance troops after a fire fight with them. By inspection there is no allegation of an overt act to conspire to murder Americans. There is no allegation of even an opportunity to murder Americans. The indictment includes the usual collection of charges to either plea bargain away for a guilty plea or, absent that, hope to get a conviction on at least one of them so the judge can impose the maximum possible penalty as in the Waco case. The most serious appears to be carrying arms in the commission of a crime. It is difficult to conceive fighting the Northern Alliance is a crime as they were armed aggressors. Self defense cannot be considered a crime. With a touch of gallows humor one can imagine a bit of Mr. Lindh's testimony. "When I saw the first US plane fly over at 20,000 feet I raised my hands in surrender but he bombed me anyway. Is it not a war crime to kill a man trying to surrender?" It was not against the law to deal with, work for, support or fight for the Taliban. Mr. Lindh violated no US law in doing so. The indictment says he was trained for the Taliban military at an Al Qaeda camp. That is not a violation of US law. The indictment states he declined an offer to engage in terrorism against the US which specifically exonerates him of any terrorism charge. It is an honest question to ask why he is being held much less having been charged with multiple crimes. There is an answer which is very simple and unamerican. The government has declared the things he did to be crimes. The creation of crime by dictate is something we normally associate with totalitarian states. UPDATE Rather inexplicably, Mr. Lindh has plead guilty to two minor charges which have nothing whatsoever to do with being a terrorist. These are both selectively enforced crimes, violation of an executive order which equated the Taliban with al Qaeda which the Bush Administration was dealing with in June 2001. It is not clear the judge can accept guilty pleas to these charges as one would have to have read the Federal Register every day to know the actions could be considered crimes. Otherwise he committed no crimes at all. He served in the armed forces of another country as have many Americans particularly in Israel, South Africa and Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. The only valid action of the judge is to find him guilty and then set aside the convictions. UPDATE October, 2002 Instead of that valid action he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the crime of defending himself when his fellow Americans tried to kill him.
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