John Walker Lindh's parents step up pressure for son's release

Source: Los Angeles Times

By Richard A. Serrano, Times Staff Writer
12:20 PM PDT, April 4, 2007

"John has been in prison for more than five years," said his mother, Marilyn Walker. "It's time for him to come home."

Lindh, a Northern California youth, left the United States when he was 18 to study Islam and eventually found himself serving as a soldier in the Taliban army fighting against the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. Soon after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he was taken into custody by U.S. military forces and returned to his country.

He was immediately branded the "American Taliban" at a time when many angry Americans wanted instant revenge for the terrorist attacks. But then, in a settlement arrangement with federal prosecutors in 2002, all terrorism charges were dropped from his case and he pleaded guilty to being a soldier for the Taliban and carrying a rifle and hand grenades.

Hicks was captured around the same time as Lindh in Afghanistan; yet unlike Lindh, Hicks was convicted of providing material support to terrorists.

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