ASHINGTON, July 15 — When John Walker Lindh was charged in January with conspiring with the Taliban to kill Americans, Attorney General John Ashcroft pronounced it a critical case in the nation's fight against terrorism. He asserted that Mr. Lindh chose to become a fanatical follower of the Taliban and never wavered in his allegiance to terrorism.
But today, as Mr. Lindh sat in a federal court in Virginia to accept a plea bargain, the case of the thin and clean-shaven Californian had long since lost its symbolic standing as the government's most high-profile effort to bring the Taliban to justice in American court.
While federal prosecutors had publicly continued to advance Mr. Ashcroft's argument that Mr. Lindh represented a serious menace, privately, within legal circles, there was a strong feeling of relief that the Justice Department reached a deal with Mr. Lindh. For all the buildup, in the end law enforcement officials said the Lindh case was too insignificant to be worth a protracted courtroom battle.
Officials at the Pentagon and the F.B.I. complained privately that Mr. Ashcroft had overstated the threat posed by Mr. Lindh in remarks like those on Jan. 15 when he said, "He chose to embrace fanatics, and his allegiance to those terrorists never faltered."
But a courtroom battle could also have been embarrassing for the government. Mr. Lindh's lawyers planned to present evidence of how after his capture Mr. Lindh was not given adequate medical care and was denied access to a lawyer when he made admissions about his activities with the Taliban. One person involved in the negotiations that led to the plea bargain said that the government wanted a quick resolution before evidence surfaced of Mr. Lindh's treatment.
Even if they feared having the case go to trial, law enforcement officials said they believed there was little doubt that the evidence against Mr. Lindh was strong enough to easily win a guilty verdict, particularly in a Northern Virginia court where jurors are regarded as sympathetic to the government. But these officials had grown skeptical that Mr. Lindh played any meaningful role in Islamic terrorism. The plea bargain offered the government a quick way out.
As they swept the Lindh case off the docket, Justice Department officials defended the plea bargain and the 20-year prison term that Mr. Lindh will serve.
But the government did make some important concessions. It dropped counts accusing Mr. Lindh of terrorism and conspiring to kill Americans, including accusations that linked Mr. Lindh to the death of Johnny Micheal Spann, a Central Intelligence Agency officer who was killed in Afghanistan.
Even though a guilty verdict could have led to a far longer sentence, Justice Department officials framed the plea bargain as a victory that reflected the criminality of Mr. Lindh's actions in Afghanistan.
"He isn't going to spend 20 years in prison for a misspent youth," said one government official referring to the two 10-year terms that Mr. Lindh will serve under the terms of the agreement. "He's going to prison for what he did in Afghanistan."
For his part, Paul J. McNulty, United States attorney for Eastern Virginia, said after today's court hearing that prosecutors accepted the deal because it would force Mr. Lindh to serve a lengthy sentence, allow prosecutors to avoid a long and expensive trial and save resources and staff for other cases.
Still, on a case of such international interest, prosecutors are not often motivated by mere concerns about resources. It was evident that both sides were looking for a way to end the case without a trial. Last week, government lawyers began preparing for a possible plea, obtaining White House approval to go ahead with talks, government officials said.
Mr. Lindh's defense team had its own motives for settling the case. After a hearing on Friday, Judge T. S. Ellis III of Federal District Court signaled that he was prepared to rule against Mr. Lindh and allow all of the defendant's incriminating statements to be introduced as evidence in the trial.
Last Wednesday, senior Justice Department officials met with Alberto R. Gonzales, the White House counsel, to discuss the possibility of a deal. Mr. Gonzales met with President Bush on Thursday at a meeting in which the president authorized the Justice Department to seek out a tough deal. Mr. Bush was informed of the terms of the deal Sunday.
The two sides differ on who first broached a concrete proposal, but the first serious step came on Friday afternoon after prosecutors outlined a deal that would force Mr. Lindh to spend a long period in prison, but would spare him a life sentence.
For Mr. Lindh, any conviction by a jury could have meant a lengthy sentence of 30 years or more since he was accused of carrying an automatic weapon — an offense that carries an automatic enhancement under the federal sentencing guidelines.
James J. Brosnahan, one of the Mr. Lindh's lawyers, said that he met over the weekend with Michael Chertoff, head of the Justice Department's criminal division, Randy I. Bellows, the lead prosecutor in the case, and Mr. McNulty.
Lawyers inside and outside the government said the deal may damage the government's credibility, but will have little impact on other terrorism cases. So far, only two other people have been charged with terror-related crimes, Zacarias Moussaoui, who has been accused of being the 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 attacks, and Richard C. Reid, who was charged with trying to detonate a shoe bomb last December aboard a Paris-to-Miami flight.
In addition, the government is holding Yasser Esam Hamdi, who was captured in Afghanistan and was discovered to be an American citizen.
Under the deal, Mr. Lindh must serve almost all of the sentence, largely because there is no parole in the federal sentencing system. He pleaded guilty to one charge of providing services to the Taliban and another of carrying explosives while committing that felony.
He must cooperate with authorities, cannot profit from books or films about his experiences and will testify before civilian courts or military tribunals if, for example, detainees are prosecuted in such a forum.
But by reaching the deal he has avoided a trial and the possibility of a life sentence in prison. The government agreed to drop all terrorism charges against him — accusations that could have led to a life sentence if he had been found guilty.