Posted: 1/20/2006 3:15:41 AM EDT
www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,182278,00.html ... "In simple terms, this is the story of a decent and honorable young man embarked on a spiritual quest," said Frank Lindh, swallowing back tears at times during a speech at the Commonwealth Club, a nonprofit organization. Frank Lindh said that although his son had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks, they ended up adding dire consequences to his decision to join the Taliban, targeted by the U.S. after the 2001 attacks for harboring Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden.
"Being viewed through the prism of those attacks has caused this young man to be vilified as a terrorist and a traitor," the elder Lindh said. John Walker Lindh, who turns 25 next month, was 20 when he was captured by American forces on Nov. 21, 2001, alongside Taliban fighters.
Charged with conspiring to kill Americans and supporting terrorists, the younger Lindh avoided a potential life sentence in 2002 by pleading guilty to lesser charges of supplying services to the Taliban in violation of U.S. economic sanctions and of carrying weapons against U.S. forces. In exchange, John Walker Lindh agreed to withdraw claims of abuse or torture. ...
John Walker Lindh, raised Catholic, was 12 when he saw the movie "Malcolm X" and became interested in Islam, his father said. A few years later he converted to Islam in a mosque in Mill Valley. With his parents' blessings, he headed to Yemen, and later Pakistan, to memorize the Quran and become an Islamic scholar. What did Frank Lindh think of his son's decision to pursue these studies?
"It's a wonderful thing for an American kid to go overseas and study, to learn another language, to learn another religion, these are great things," he said. In the spring of 2001, John Walker Lindh told his parents he was going to dodge the desert heat and spend the summer in the mountains of Pakistan. He did not tell his parents that he planned to cross into Afghanistan and join the Taliban army. The younger Lindh saw bin Laden speak twice while he was training in Afghanistan, but had no idea that he was involved in terrorism against the U.S., his father said. ...
| Oh man, those Kalifornia libs are kooky as heck! Get a load of this fruitcake! www.papillonsartpalace.com/sympathy.htm ... Examiner columnist P.J. Corkery wrote that Walker's dad, Frank Lindh, left his wife for a man, and intimated that it helped drive Walker into the arms of Osama bin Laden. "When Frank Lindh left his family in 1997, it was to move in with a male companion," Corkery reported. ". . . Family friends say the men lived as a gay couple . . . Sources close to the family say the father's turn of life from married man to modern gay man startled and flustered the 16-year-old." Corkery said Lindh has been trying to keep his "turn of life" out of the papers, noting, "Given the pummeling that the Walkers . . . have taken from the national press over their wayward son, you can't blame the old man for wanting to suppress reporting on his sexuality." ...
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