The Truth about John Walker Lindh
By: Robert Young Pelton (b. July 25, 1955, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada), is an author, journalist and documentary filmmaker
John Walker Lindh aka John Walker aka Suleiman Ferris aka Abdul Hamid aka The American Taliban is a person that I will mostly likely to be associated for some time to come. I am sure on my obituary there will be a bombastic note that I was “the journalist who “discovered” Lindh after the battle at Qali Jangi” (the afghans have that dubious honor) Many have told me that Lindh’s story was a big deal back in the States. I will never know. I was in Afghanistan covering combat operations with in the ongoing war against the Taliban for CNN so I will never have the chance to the get the full impact of finding an American professing his love for the Taliban.
To me Lindh was just an unpleasant arrogant kid who preferred to stay with his murdering friends. He was, in fact, the second Irish-American Jihadi I have met and interviewed. The first one was a one-legged psychopath who had been trained in the same camps and had fought in Kashmir, Kosovo, Bosnia, Chechnya and Liberia gave me his opinion. When I called him to discuss Lindh’s hejira, Aqil Collins simply called Lindh “a pussy.” When I returned from Afghanistan I was quite aware of the outrage he had caused. In a deliberate effort not to influence his pending case, I did only interviews in which I spoke positively about Lindh.
Privately I warned his lawyers to keep me off the witness stand because I would send their little Johnny to prison. Wisely, Lindh copped a plea and I was spared months of inconvenience. Some people wanted a trial to get to the bottom of Lindh’s nefarious activities, among them the grieving family of Mike Spann. Lindh’s plea bargain denied them and the country of that truth finding.
So it was left to me to set the record straight. My decades of travels with jihadis and terrorists, my time with both the Taliban leadership, the Northern Alliance (aka the United Front), Dostum’s forces — as well as my own time spent during and after talking to the players involved with Qali Jangi — lead me to believe that I am uniquely qualified to pass judgment on Lindh and to accurately describe who he was and what he was doing there.
Now that Lindh’s father has decided to wrongly blame me for his son’s misery and seek clemency under false pretenses, I feel its time to reveal the truth.
Quite simply, in my opinion, Lindh was a terrorist, a member of what we call al Qaeda, and a man who chose to stay with killers even though he was afforded numerous opportunities to separate himself from his murderous associates. Twenty years in jail may be a blessing compared to how many of his friends have been dealt with since.
http://www.honormikespann.org/pdfs/pelton_feb2006.pdf
According to other captives interviewed by Robert Young Pelton for CNN, Lindh was fully aware of the planned uprising, yet remained silent and did not cooperate with the Americans.. Lindh did not report his American citizenship to his captors, despite the fact that it might have provided him better treatment.
Lindh was noticed and interviewed by Pelton, who was working as an embedded journalist and stringer for CNN. Lindh initially gave his name as “Abd-al-Hamid” but later gave his birth name. Pelton brought a medic and food for Lindh and interviewed him about how he got there. Lindh stated that he was a member of al-Ansar, a group of Arabic-speaking fighters financed by Osama bin Laden. Lindh said that the prison uprising was sparked by some of the prisoner guards smuggling grenades into the basement, “This is against what we had agreed upon with the Northern Alliance, and this is against Islam. It is a major sin to break a contract, especially in military situations”.
A US Army Special Forces operative, fresh from 3 weeks of combat, then gave up his bed so that the wounded Lindh could sleep there.
Repeatedly Pelton asked Lindh if he wanted to call his parents or have Pelton do so, but Lindh declined. Pelton knew Lindh was receiving his first medical treatment since being shot in the leg and had been given morphine by a medic prior to Pelton’s interview; however, medically speaking, morphine in the doses given as analgesia for a gunshot wound would not be strong enough to produce the mental effects necessary to prevent him from understanding Pelton’s repeated questions as to whether or not he wanted to make contact with them.
wow, great info at that link, thanks for posting!
the real story of the anti-American terrorist scumbag
This journ-o-list wasn't interested in Lindh’s case. He did it to keep his job with CNN. ( Communist News Network).
Thank you for that post.
One of my biggest concerns when Obama is shown the door is that he will commute this a-hole’s sentence. I’d have to fight for my place in line for Lindh’s welcome home party should the unthinkable come to pass. Of course, if Obama resigns or is impeached before 2013, then the above is a moot point.
excellent
Thanks for posting that link. A must read.
Quite a story.
Great stuff, thanks.
ahhh, the truth. like a breeze after the rain.
Thanks!