Posted on 12/22/2007 9:56:01 AM PST by 3AngelaD
John Walker Lindh's lawyers and parents appealed to President Bush for the fourth time Tuesday to commute the Marin County man's 20-year prison sentence for aiding the Taliban in 2001, saying the nation has grown less fearful since then and that others convicted of similar charges have been treated more leniently. "John Lindh had no involvement whatsoever in terrorism or criminal activity," his mother, Marilyn Walker, said at a news conference....
"Others have received a lot less in the way of a sentence even when they were convicted of a lot more," the lawyer said.
Bush has not responded to any of the family's previous requests to reduce Lindh's sentence. The White House referred questions Tuesday to the Justice Department, where spokesman Erik Ablin said only that the original commutation request, filed in September 2004, is still pending. Lindh, now 26, converted to Islam as a teenager, went to Yemen at 18 to study his religion and became a Taliban foot soldier in Afghanistan in the summer of 2001. He was captured in November 2001 and was turned over to U.S. forces after a prison riot in which a CIA agent was killed....Charged initially with terrorism-related crimes that could have carried a life sentence, he pleaded guilty in July 2002 to aiding the Taliban and carrying weapons and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Brosnahan said Lindh has about 11 years left to serve and was transferred in the last few months from a maximum-security federal prison in Florence, Colo., to a medium-security prison that he declined to identify. He also declined to make the commutation request public and said the government prohibited him from discussing his conversations with Lindh....
"I think the mood of the country has changed dramatically since 2001-2002," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
He’s lucky he wasn’t shot on the spot.
LLS
Just a traitor, who signed up to kill Americans.
He is misunderstood.
His parents are wasting their breath on this President. They may have a better chance with a demoCrap in office.. [Like that is going to happen]
Sad his parents are paying the price now for the “enlightened” and “tolerant,” consequence-free way they raised him. From the interviews I saw, the parents are a couple of prize squish-heads.
Come on now everyone, where is the compassion?
This poor misguided youth.
Shoot him.
This guy used up all his luck not leaving his bones in Afghanistan.
This vermin was directly responsible for the death of the brave CIA agent Johnny Mike Spahn. Hang em high at sunrise!!
If he wasn’t fighting for the enemy in a time of war, how pray tell did he get apprehended in the middle of a combat?
Don’t be so sure, President Bush could still give Johnny John Lennon Lindh Doo Doo Walker a last minute pardon on his way out of office.
Don’t expect a pardon ever for Ramos and Campeon. Johnny Sutton is Bush’s buddy.
Uh, hang on. He joined before 9-11 didn’t he?
Still a freakin traitor with murderous intent
If Compeon and Ramos are getting nowhere then this boy will grow old in prison!
I think he should get pardoned from the burden of living his life...I wish that Johnny Micheal Spann was still here to do him the favor!
Johnny Taliban was part of an organized group and their revolt and holdout led directly to the death of that CIA agent, Mike Spann. Johnny Taliban was part and parcel of that effort.
And Johnny Taliban was loyal to the end.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3067386/
And O.J.’s Mama still says he didn’t do it. Why does the media treat the parents of criminals as crebible character references? And their lawyers, whose opinions are bought and paid for. Who cares what they think?
To recap, Spahn and another CIA guy were interrogating disarmed prisoners one by one, and interrogated Lindh, who concealed that he spoke English. Thus, Lindh overheard anything they said in presumed confidence to each other. Lindh was then returned to the group of prisoners. Shortly thereafter, the prisoners murderously rushed en masse the two CIA guys, who were armed only with pistols.
So yeah, you pretty much summed it up.
He was facing the wrong way in a battle. That’s enough for me.
Ramos and Compean first.
Commute it?! Hell, give him another 50 years.
You'd think they'd get the picture.
I think part of their problem is that they have NEVER gotten ANY of the picture.
“He is a traitor who should have been hanged”.
Or tied to a post and shot.
This spoiled little punk took arms against American troops. He’s a traitor and should have been shot by a firing squad
This pretty boy is doing just great in prison and will come out gayer than his dad
Holy God, I didn’t know that. How did this guy get away with his skin intact (i.e. without being hanged)?!
If he walks like a duck...
It creeped me out when I heard his voice. He was asked something about waging Jihad—”That’s the dddrream of every Mussslim.” With an Arabian accent. Creepy. What, other than a deep psychological derangement (technical term: screw loose), would make a kid from California start speaking his native language with an Arabian accent?
He was directly responsible, on multiple occasions, for the murder of Americans, Spann and others.
It strikes me that none of us has paid sufficient attention to this paragraph from the article:
Attorney James Brosnahan noted that Yasir Hamdi, a U.S. citizen who was captured at the same time with the same Taliban forces as Lindh, was released to Saudi Arabia without criminal charges in 2004 after spending three years at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
I would support him spending some time in Guantanamo among his fellows and then being deported to Saudi Arabia. Let him go live in the ideologically pure Islamic state that his heart desires.
They need to ask Jimmy Carter and Ramsey Clark to intercede with GWB.
We all need the laughs.
I believe Yasi Hamdi was born in the U.S. to Saudi parents and raised in Saudi Arabia. So they just sent that birthright citizenship turd back to his real home. I don’t have a problem with Lindh serving his ENTIRE sentence and then being sent to Saudi Arabia, but I don’t think his parents would let him go. If I were in charge, part of his punishment would be to read and reread, over and over, Edward Everett Hale’s “The Man Without a Country.”
You’re right about Hamdi.
Lindh has 11 years left on his sentence. He has already served time at the max. security prison. If his parents want a result similar to that of Hamdi, I support that choice. Hamdi and his family do not live in the United States. Walker Lindh shouldn’t live in the US. His family ought to be able to go visit him in Saudi Arabia or to move there.
I say draft him to make pro-American propaganda radio messages to our enemies. They say he as great Arabic Language skills—our foes mght believe him as an ex-follower of Osama. Let him work his way out of jail by helpping the country he turned his back on. If he doesn’t want to help—let him rot.
Release him, with much fanfare, on the parade field of Ft Brag.
Or hang him.
Uh, hang on. He joined before 9-11 didn’t he?
And after the first WTC bombings. Remember the one during the 90s?
He’s lucky he wasn’t shot on the spot....
he should have been and the stupid parents should have been billed for the bullet for this scum traitor!!!!
He should have hung, we should have sent a message with him.
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