Its easy to invent things from thousands of miles away to support the idea that people who were trying to stop al qaeda trained recruits like Lindh were bad and that somehow there is no punishment regardless of his failed intentions.

While I was with him he was treated humanely, given medical treatment and a warm bed and then he was dropped off. Feel free to invent and insult but the facts will also remain.

1. Marines were rationed (2) Meal Ready to Eat (MRE) per day and (2) bottles of water per day. Walker was given (3) MREs per day and an endless amount of water.

2. Yes he was housed in a 20 foot shipping container. His conditions were better than most. The container stopped the near freezing wind and the endless sand. He slept on a litter and had at least two large blankets (one below him and one or two above him). He was given clothes shortly after he was received and he received prompt medical attention. Most of the Marines lived in holes in the and constantly had to fight the cold and the elements.

3. He was there (Afghanistan and Pakistan) , he went to at least two of Bin Ladden’s training camps and met him on at least two occasions. He was sent to train with the Taliban be cause he was not ready to fight for the Cashmeer. He was Taliban.

4. He was never tortured in the Marines Custody. His quality of life increased exponentially once Marines took custody. Besides his small wound on his upper thigh, there were no other injuries or signs of any abuse.

All of what I wrote is first hand or from the mouth of John Walker. I was there.

I could go on but why bother. I am dissappointed about the Gag Order. I wish they would release all of his pictures and investigate and prosecute any claims of mistreatment. I know I am safe.

In short, John Walker Lindh was sentenced to 20 years for carrying a rifle and two hand grenades in a civil war fought on the other side of the planet. The side that he had aligned himself with had been openly supported by the USA government until shortly before this story broke.

I’m no legal expert but I don’t even see a discernible crime here.

Pelton’s commentary here falls flat and lacks veracity.

I had to laugh reading his remarks: “…Lindh stupidly took a plea bargain on the advice of his lawyers … The correct approach would be to tel the truth about Lindh and then compare his “rehabilitation” to date. I am sure he would be like any other kill- cult member snapped back into reality.”

Pelton, do you read your tripe before posting?

More Pelton: “As I mention in my eye witness version. Mike Spann came to face to face with John Walker Lindh and Lindh said nothing even though he knew exactly what was about to happen in a few minutes. If Lindh had said one word to warn Spann, Mike and over a hundred Afghans would be alive today.”

Pelton, so your ‘eye witness version’ included reading minds? Or did you call Ms. Cleo to determine so absolutely who and when a plan was made to riot and that Lindh was part of it and “KNEW” enough to warn Mike Spann?

There were approximately 400-450 prisoners with Lindh, and only 86 survived (one of whom was Lindh) after a week in the basement of Dostrum’s headquarters. There were shootings, torturing to death, gasoline fires and drowning efforts by General Dostrum whose sadistic nature and reputation was no secret to any of those prisoners including Lindh — and that was prior to Spann’s arrival on the scene. How conveniently you omitted those atrosities and the fear those men, including Lindh, had much less the fact they were in no condition to TRUST anyone or BELIEVE any strange face.

Did your “eye witness version” exclude that when the Afghan Army interviewed Lindh before Spann arrived, Lindh asked in whose custody he was fearing it was Dostrum’s?

In the aftermath of that massacre were “all the stupid photos that were taken” that you mentioned of what the Afghan Army discovered to their recorded horror that occurred in the basement as well as outside?

Seems rather strange that Lindh would’ve known about the plan to riot (especially since none of the prisoners including Lindh had weapons) and “could have warned Spann” — yet allowed himself to risk his very life in the process … particularly after he fought to remain alive through all the rest of Dostrum’s week-long “party”.

You talked about witnesses and testimony, but not what or who, yet in the end the prosecutors LACKED sufficient evidence to a degree that 10 charges had to be dropped. Then came the concocted plea bargain (to save face in light of the publicity already released about Lindh based on the typical BS propaganda the world endured for eight years), a gag order and conditions to ensure utter silence from Lindh … obviously so the conspirators could say that over 20 years Lindh forgot what really happened and just imagined ‘this bizarre story he’s now concocting after 20 years’. And you think your proclaimed “eye witness version” is going to be swallowed, in part or whole?

Not only is your timeline skewed, Mr. Pelton, and absent is the fact you interviewed Lindh on a gurney after he was filled with morphine, but shall we presume that your “eye witness version” did not include SecDef Donald Rumfeld’s direct order to Lindh’s interrogators, which was, “Take the gloves off in your interrogation of John Walker Lindh”?

According to you Lindh wasn’t tortured, yet following Rumsfeld’s order, he was stripped naked in the winter – already dehydrated and on the verge of hypothermia. His bullet wound was left untreated. They put plastic restraints around his wrists and his ankles. He was tied to a gurney and placed naked in an unheated metal shipping container in the desert and left there for two days and two nights shivering.

In addition, the Red Cross was denied access to him, and his famaily’s letters were withheld from him for months. What would you call that? Humane treatment? Compliance with the Geneva Conventions?

As a former magazine publisher and editor, you, Mr. Pelton, would be looking for employment after reading your posts here. You claim to be a journalist. An an author, that truly makes me cringe.

“Much of northern Afghanistan was ruled by the Uzbek general, Rashid Dostum, who had been part of the Communist regime and commanded a powerful army. The Pakistani journalist and author Ahmed Rashid once arrived to interview him in a fort overlooking his capital of Mazar-e-Sharif. Noticing bloodstains and scraps of flesh in the muddy courtyard he asked the guards if they had slaughtered a goat. They explained that an hour earlier General Dostum had punished a soldier for theft. “The man had been tied to the tracks of a Russian-made tank,” records Mr Rashid, “which then drove around the courtyard crushing his body into mincemeat, while the garrison and Dostum watched.”

At the time of the terrorist attacks on the US in 2001, warlords including General Dostum and General Fahim were fighting for their lives or were in exile. But within hours of 9/11, the US was looking for local allies to provide the ground troops which, backed by US airpower, advisers and money, would overthrow the Taliban in Kabul.

In a couple of months warlords, many from the main opposition grouping, the Northern Alliance, were the new rulers of Afghanistan.”

“Dave [to Spann]: “The problem is, he’s got to decide if he wants to live or die and die here. We’re just going to leave him, and he’s going to f—cking sit in prison the rest of his f—cking short life. It’s his decision, man. We can only help the guys who want to talk to us. We can only get the Red Cross to help so many guys.”

Spann [to Walker]: “Do you know the people here you’re working with are terrorists and killed other Muslims? There were several hundred Muslims killed in the bombing in New York City. Is that what the Koran teaches? I don’t think so. Are you going to talk to us?”

Walker does not respond.” -filmed transcript by German television crew

Spann’s predetermined conclusion that all Taleban, and Lindh, are working for Bin Laden, and are “Al Qaeda.” “Intelligence gathering,” indeed.

As T. Meehan mentions above, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, as well as a good number of American officials, have fought in Israeli uniforms. The difference is one of being caught fighting for a declared enemy. Arguably unbeknownst to Lindh, the political winds had shifted during his tenure fighting the Northern Alliance, leaving him exposed. The Northern Alliance did not betray its offer of safe passage to the Taleban group Lindh was traveling with, and march them to a basement prison because they intended to lavish them with milk and honey. The political windfall for the Bush administration was the fear forced into the minds of Americans, the confession that cemented a supposed victory for the state, and, the ability to quash any potential fissure in the propaganda campaign forcing Americans to hold a taught line against the identified enemy: “Islamic terrorism.”

“He’s basically caused damage to all the people that he associated himself with because he was misguided. The school [Lindh attended] in Yemen doesn’t speak highly of him, the guy at the madrasah didn’t understand why this grownup was sitting with kids learning to speak the Koran, the Taliban didn’t want him. … ”

As for the terrorism charges, Pelton says Lindh “was not part of that world. … He wanted to fight with the Taliban to create an Islamic state. None of those issues tie into what happened on September 11.”

-Robert Young Pelton, 2002

Simply seems Messr. Pelton has been bought and paid for…

Not a second spent talking to the victims of Lindh’s group. Lindh and his cohorts were directly involved in the planning of the uprising and the events that led up to Mike Spann’s death. As I mention in my eye witness version. Mike Spann came to face to face with John Walker Lindh and Lindh said nothing even though he knew exactly what was about to happen in a few minutes. If Lindh had said one word to warn Spann, Mike and over a hundred Afghans would be alive today.

Lindh’s family refuse to address a number of eye witness accounts, nor do they want to come to terms with what their son was part of.

There is a gag order placed on John Walker Lindh – this was one of the conditions of the plea bargain which was offered once it was clear that news and photos of Walker’s inhumane imprisonment would surface. By rule of this gag order, Walker is not allowed to receive mail, receive visitors to whom he is not related, or write and publish any statements. If you are interested in more about this person, there is an article in the April 2009 issue of GQ that is written by a former U.S. Army soldier who served in Afghanistan in 2004 and 2005. I would like to reiterate the fact that Walker never took up arms against the U.S. – he was participating in Afghanistan’s civil war during a period in which the U.S. recognized the Taliban as the existing government of the nation. Was he misguided? Absolutely. A traitor? Absolutely not.

When he was moved to Rhino was ridiculed and an officer I met had to collect all the stupid photos that were taken but he wasn’t physically harmed. Then he was on a ship. Its quite normal to leave shrapnel inside people but he had a tiny piece of a AK round in his leg and some small bits along his back.

The government and the Brosnahan case was a farce. Instead of contacting eye witnesses and using logic it became a politicised self aggrandizing witchhunt. Brosnahan threatened me then tried to drag me around the courts. Mike Spann’s father was not given a fair chance to discover the truth (he did finally) and Lindh stupidly took a plea bargain on the advice of his lawyers…who do this pathetic PR program every year. The correct approach would be to tel the truth about Lindh and then compare his “rehabilitation” to date. I am sure he would be like any other kill- cult member snapped back into reality.

Lindh was a self confessed member of al qaeda and should have been tried for that. His part in the murder of MIke Spann and a number of afghans should have been the center point. You might remember there were two American al qaeda members. Yasar Hamdi did the Gitmo circuit but had his rich Saudi parents went through the court system and he went home after they determined that he had not been processed or treated properly.