http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/05/international/asia/05AMER.html

U.S. Hopes American Taliban Will Tell All

December 5, 2001

THE CONVERT
U.S. Hopes American Taliban Will Tell All
By JAMES DAO
ASHINGTON, Dec. 4 — John Walker Lindh, the 20-year-old American who was
captured with Taliban soldiers in northern Afghanistan, could provide a
bounty of useful intelligence about the recruiting methods, hide-outs,
supply routes and lower-level command structure of the Taliban military,
senior Pentagon officials said today.
The officials said American Special Forces troops were holding Mr. Walker,
who goes by his mother's last name. They said he was being treated for a
variety of injuries, somewhere near Mazar-i-Sharif.
[In Afghanistan, Syed Wasiqullah, a Northern Alliance officer in Mazar-
i-Sharif, said the American had fought with Al Qaeda in Kabul and
Kandahar, but that he had been taken out of the country. He indicated with
a hand gesture that Mr. Walker was eccentric.]
The Pentagon officials said Americans had conducted preliminary interviews
with him, but declined to say whether the questioning was being supervised
by the military or by intelligence officers. Officials would not say
whether Mr. Walker was cooperating.
Mr. Walker, a convert to Islam who has been in Afghanistan only since May,
according to his parents, is thought to have been a lowly foot soldier in
the Taliban's ragtag army and is not believed to know much about the
whereabouts or movements of senior leaders.
But as one of the thousands of young men who were recruited by the Taliban
from religious schools, mosques and other institutions in Pakistan, Mr.
Walker could help American investigators understand the international
network that has funneled Islamic fighters into Afghanistan.
One senior military official said the Pentagon was particularly interested
in knowing where Mr. Walker first made contact with the Taliban.
If it was a mosque, for instance, investigators would want to know whether
religious teachers were actively involved in recruitment.
During a television interview that has been broadcast on CNN, Mr. Walker
said he had first met people connected with the Taliban while he was
studying Islam in northwestern Pakistan, but offered few details.
"The people there in general have a great love for the Taliban," Mr.
Walker said. "So I started to read some of the literature of the scholars
and of the history of the movement and just thought, my heart became
attached to them."
The senior military official also said Mr. Walker might be able to explain
some of the basic operations of the Taliban military. Do they pay bonuses
to their recruits? Where did they get their training, and from whom? What
routes did they use to move between Pakistan and Afghanistan? Did they use
caves and tunnels as barracks, command and control centers or storage
depots?
As American military officials pondered what information they could glean
from Mr. Walker, lawyers were still studying what kind of legal case, if
any, could be brought against him. His parents, who live in northern
California, said they had hired a lawyer to represent him.

On Monday a senior Bush administration official said Mr. Walker probably
could not be tried before a military tribunal unless he was first stripped
of his citizenship. But government lawyers and legal experts have said Mr.
Walker can still face an array of criminal charges, including treason.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said today that the administration
had not decided how to handle Mr. Walker's case. Asked if he considered
the young man a traitor, Mr. Rumsfeld chose his words carefully. "I am not
a lawyer," he said. "There are a lot of words that people have for
different categories of human beings that depend on their behavior."

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Interrogate him, let the Taliban know we have him and made him squeal, then let him go back to be with his "friends". I'm sure they would love to get their hands on the American traitor who talked.

It would save the country the money and hassle of a trial, and I'm sure the Taliban would deliver a much better punishment than would ever be allowed over here.

Michael

Nothing like a Taliban video of Walker first getting his hands and feet cut off...and then his head.

"Let it be known" that he's CIA.  
Then return him to his "friends"...

Aww just give the poor man a shave and a haircut. Clean him up and a new 3 piece suit NO even better a Santa suit then drop him back off with his friends. With a big-ol' bag full of gifts for the Taliban. Maybe a bag of clocks..tick..tick..tick..[grenade] Ho Ho Ho

He is a prisoner of war. Turn him over to the Northern Alliance and let them deal with him as they would any other non-Afghani fighting for the Taliban. If, after they get done with him and he is still alive, then revoke his citizenship and forever deny him entry back into the US.

But the best case scenario would be as Waldo suggested: That he gets shot trying to escape.

Yes he might be useful, but then again, here we go with double standards.

Non afgans and non afgans from the US.

I wish they'd quit calling him the "American" Taliban.  He chose his side, and he deserves that consequences.

Maybe it's just me, but those photos of him remind me of Tom Hanks when he's stranded in "Castaway." American Taliban? He's just another brainwashed loser.