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<p>ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The fate of American-born Taliban John Walker Lindh could be determined this week, when his lawyers make a critical attempt to disqualify his own statements about Al Qaeda and Usama bin Laden from the case.</p> <p>While Walker's trial is not scheduled until Aug. 26, the indictment charging him with conspiring to kill Americans appears to rely mainly on his own statements while a captive in Afghanistan.</p>

July 13, 2002 Interviewer of Captured American Must Testify, Judge RulesBy NEIL A. LEWIS LEXANDRIA, Va., July 12 — With critical legal arguments beginning next week in the government's case against John Walker Lindh, the judge ruled today that his lawyers should be able to question in court a reporter who interviewed Mr. Lindh shortly after his capture in Afghanistan. Judge T. S. Ellis III, who is presiding over Mr. Lindh's trial in Federal District Court here, ruled that the defense may call as a witness Robert Young Pelton, a writer who was working as a CNN correspondent when United...

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jul 12, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- A judge on Friday rejected a freelance reporter's effort to avoid testifying about his videotaped interview with American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh in Afghanistan last year. U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III ruled that journalists don't enjoy a First Amendment privilege to avoid testifying except in very limited circumstances involving protection of confidential sources or harassment. His ruling means that for the time being freelance reporter Robert Pelton is required to testify next week at Lindh's pretrial hearing. While refusing to grant Pelton's request to reverse his subpoena,...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — John Walker Lindh's lawyers are waging their most important pretrial fight, hoping to keep jurors from hearing the U.S.-born Taliban soldier's statements about meeting Osama bin Laden and knowing of al-Qaida operations. The legal dispute, to be argued next week before U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, could reverberate well beyond Lindh's case to other prisoners captured in the war on terrorism. Lindh represents a new breed of defendant — someone originally picked up as an enemy combatant in a war zone and later transferred to the civilian court system. Ellis must determine whether such prisoners...

<p>Many Americans are convinced that John Walker Lindh, the former Marin County resident affiliated with the Taliban, is an accomplice in terror who betrayed his country. Some believe he deserves to die.</p> <p>These are understandable sentiments. After all, we have been told by our nation's top law enforcement official that Lindh dedicated himself to "killing Americans." Attorney General John Ashcroft went so far as to accuse Lindh of complicity in the atrocities of September 11, claiming at a press conference on January 15, that the filing of criminal charges against Lindh was compelled "by the inescapable fact of September the 11th. . . . We cannot overlook attacks on America when they come from United States citizens."</p>

<p>The government yesterday asked a federal judge for more time to investigate whether Justice Department authorities leaked to the media e-mail messages sealed by the court in the pending trial of John Walker Lindh, an American accused of being a part of the Taliban.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) --  The Justice Department is investigating whether any government officials leaked sealed documents to the media in the case of suspected American Taliban John Walker Lindh.</p> <p>Last month, the court asked the government to report whether there had been leaks after a Newsweek article on the Lindh case quoted a string of internal e-mails by Justice Department officials. The e-mails suggested Lindh might have a good argument in his motion to suppress statements he made just after his capture by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.</p>

The frenzied cry to string John Walker Lindh up by his thumbs is a fine example of America's determination never to let facts get in the way of a good temper tantrum. Attorney General John Ashcroft accuses Lindh of dedicating himself to "killing Americans," and a 10-count felony indictment includes allegations that Lindh committed "conspiracy to murder United States nationals." The Attorney General even went so far as to accuse Lindh of complicity in the atrocities of September 11. At his January 15, 2002 press conference Aschroft stated that the filing of criminal charges against Lindh was compelled "by the...

<p>Federal prosecutors yesterday denied defense assertions that American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh was tortured, coerced or improperly questioned after his capture by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.</p> <p>In documents filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Bellows said the 22-year-old Californian, now listed as an "unlawful enemy combatant," was treated with "exceptional regard for his health, his safety and his security."</p>

<p>ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) During the time American-born Taliban John Walker Lindh says he was being held in ''torturous conditions'' and denied access to a lawyer, he was telling his story ''to anyone and everyone who would listen,'' prosecutors said Monday.</p>

ASHINGTON, June 14 — Wounded, starved, frozen and exhausted, John Walker Lindh was shocked into near silence by the accumulation of death around him in a battered mud fort in northern Afghanistan. It was in this state, his lawyers said today, that he was captured and interrogated by American military officials.In vivid detail, Mr. Lindh's lawyers argued in court papers today that he was oppressed, delirious and debilitated when he was taken into custody and interrogated — and that he was not advised of his legal rights as an American citizen. As a result, his lawyers said, the interviews...

American Taliban Says Interrogation Violated Rights WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials violated John Walker Lindh's Fifth Amendment rights by improperly interrogating him in custody, his attorneys said on Friday in arguing that incriminating statements made by the American Taliban should be thrown out.In court documents filed with the U.S. District Court, Lindh's lawyers said U.S. interrogators have failed to offer Lindh his so-called Miranda rights. The rights, which require all suspects be told they have the right to an attorney and to remain silent, are a bedrock of the American legal system.Lindh, a 21-year-old Californian captured in Afghanistan last year...

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jun 13, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- John Walker Lindh left America, trained as a Taliban soldier, met Osama bin Laden and found himself in a war against the United States. That resume notwithstanding, defense lawyers want him seen as a misguided young man rather than a terrorist who hates his country. Lindh's physical image already has been transformed. The infantryman who had long, unkempt hair and a beard in Afghanistan now has a neat haircut and black-framed glasses. The tougher job for Lindh's defense team of former prosecutors is to cast doubt on the government's...

IF THERE HAS BEEN doubt in anyone's mind about the nature of the government's principal case against John Walker Lindh, last week's court filing by the United States Attorney should have dispelled it. To understand the significance of what the government's motion papers said, it's necessary to remind ourselves about what "conspiracy" means in federal criminal law, and then about what the indictment charges Lindh with having done. Conspiracy is proved by evidence showing an agreement (which can be tacit, so long as it is clear) to do something illegal (e.g., killing Americans in general, and/or CIA operative Mike...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - John Walker Lindh had no constitutional right to join the Taliban and his U.S.-granted freedoms were not violated when he was indicted for doing so, prosecutors argue. ``Lindh is not charged with joining a subversive political party, or with circulating incendiary handbills or religious material, or with exhorting an audience in a city park to oppose the government,'' prosecutors said in a written motion Wednesday. ``Instead, he is charged with undergoing weeks of training from the world's most lethal and accomplished terrorist group, arming himself with rifles and grenades, and spending several months as a jihadist...

ASHINGTON, June 5 — The government painted a chilling portrait of John Walker Lindh this week, describing him in pretrial motions as someone who bears some responsibility for the Sept. 11 attacks and for the death of Johnny Micheal Spann, a Central Intelligence Agency officer, in a prison uprising in Afghanistan.Contrary to the depiction of Mr. Lindh, 21, originally from California, as an innocent abroad by his defense team, the government said that he was aware of plans for suicide attacks "even worse" than those of Sept. 11, that he could have alerted Mr. Spann that his life was...

<p>Washington -- For the first time, federal prosecutors explicitly accused John Walker Lindh on Tuesday of being partly responsible for the slaying of CIA agent Johnny "Mike" Spann during an Afghan prison uprising in November.</p> <p>In a bluntly worded 32-page motion, the prosecutors said the Marin County man accused of participating in a conspiracy to kill Americans overseas and of providing material support for terrorists can be blamed directly for Spann's death under the law of conspiracy.</p>

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jun 05, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- The government says the trial of an American-born Taliban soldier, John Walker Lindh, should stay in a Northern Virginia courtroom just miles from the Sept. 11 attack on the Pentagon. While pretrial publicity has been intense, Lindh's defense team is primarily responsible, prosecutors argued Tuesday in a written motion. An earlier defense pleading asked that the case be dismissed - on grounds Lindh could not receive a fair trial anywhere - or moved to another location. Lindh's lawyers accused Attorney General John Ashcroft and other officials of making public...

<p>Interrogated Lindh.</p> <p>June 5, 2002 -- WASHINGTON - American Taliban John Walker Lindh played a direct role in killing heroic CIA agent Johnny Michael Spann by staying mum instead of warning him of an imminent deadly revolt, the feds charged yesterday.</p>

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jun 01, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Lawyers for John Walker Lindh say seven U.S. military personnel who encountered the captured Taliban soldier should be required to testify in court, despite prosecutors' insistence they have no relevant information. The dispute, focus of a court hearing Friday, displayed the defense lawyers' mistrust of the prosecutors. The defense is searching for witnesses who could confirm their theory that Lindh was coerced into making damaging statements after his capture in Afghanistan. U.S. troops kept Lindh bound, naked and blindfolded, imprisoned him in a metal container and injected him with...