| John Walker Lindh | John Walker Lindh | Taliban | Afghanistan/South Asia | 20020122 | ||||
| John Walker Lindh | al-Qaeda | Down Under | 20040611 | Link | ||||
| John Phillip Walker Lindh | Taliban | Afghanistan/South Asia | 20011202 | |||||
| John Walker Lindh | Tablighi Jamaat | India-Pakistan | 20060915 | Link |
| Home Front: WoT |
| American Taliban' John Walker Lindh illegally met with convicted ISIS supporter three times while on supervised release from prison, FBI says |
| 2023-02-04 |
  [Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
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| Afghanistan |
| 18 years later: Remembering CIA Officer Johnny Spann |
| 2019-11-26 |
 [LI] Killed in the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi (11-25-2001). John Walker Lindh, the American Taliban interrogated by Spann just before Spann was killed, was released from prison last May.For many years, on November 25 and also Memorial Day, we have remembered Johnny Micheal Spann, a CIA Operations Officer who was the first American killed in Afghanistan after 9/11. We have told Spann’s story many times, but it never gets old. Our 15th Anniversary post summed up much of what we had learned, 15th Anniversary: Johnny "Mike" Spann, first American killed in Afghanistan. A small group of special operations officers, often riding on horseback, helped organize the Northern Alliance forces and overthrow the Taliban. Related: John Walker Lindh: 2019-05-23 Re: John Walker Lindh out of prison. WoT continues. John Walker Lindh: 2019-05-22 'Slap in the face': Daughter of CIA officer killed after 9/11 slams 'American Taliban' release John Walker Lindh: 2019-03-20 John Walker Lindh, American ex-Taliban fighter, to be released in May |
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| Home Front: WoT |
| Re: John Walker Lindh out of prison. WoT continues. |
| 2019-05-23 |
John Walker Lindh, the so-called "American Taliban" whose capture in Afghanistan riveted a country in the early days after the September 11 attacks, has been released from prison. After serving 17 years of a 20-year sentence, Lindh, the first US-born detainee in the war on terror, on Thursday walked out of a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, and will join the small, but growing, group of Americans convicted of terror-related charges attempting to re-enter into society. Lindh will live in Virginia subject to the direction of his probation officer, his lawyer, Bill Cummings, tells CNN. But some are already calling for an investigation into his time in prison ‐ where he is said in two US government reports to have made pro-ISIS and other extremist statements ‐ that could send him back into detention. Reports of Lindh’s maintained radicalization, detailed in two 2017 official counterterrorism assessments, are also driving questions about the efforts of the US government to rehabilitate former sympathizers like him, who are expected to complete prison sentences in waves in the coming years. Lindh’s behavior must have been particularly good, at least from the prison system point of view. Federal guidelines require prisoners to serve at least 85% of their sentence regardless of their disposition while incarcerated, and that’s precisely what Lindh served. Even so, Lindh would have been released no later than three years from now regardless of his behavior, unless he committed other prosecutable crimes while in prison. |
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| Afghanistan |
| 'Slap in the face': Daughter of CIA officer killed after 9/11 slams 'American Taliban' release |
| 2019-05-22 |
| [Washington Examiner] The last time Alison Spann saw her father, she was 9 years old. "My family drove to CIA," she recalls. "I was the only one who cried. The last memory I have of my dad is him walking away from us in the dark with all his bags." That was shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Johnny "Mike" Spann was 32, a CIA paramilitary officer and former Marine who knew he was bound for northern Afghanistan and might never return. Less than two months later ‐ and moments after he had been questioning a bedraggled Taliban detainee named John Walker Lindh ‐ he was killed by a mob of prisoners attempting to escape from the remote fortress of Qala-i-Jangi. In a cruel twist of fate, Alison Spann's mother died of cancer a month later. Suddenly, the young girl became the first orphan of what was already known as the War on Terror. Now 27, Alison Spann is a television reporter working in Biloxi, Mississippi. After her father was killed, Lindh, now 38, was recaptured and it was discovered he was an American who had grown up in California, converted to Islam at age 16, and at 20, traveled to Afghanistan, joining the Taliban before 9/11 and attending al Qaeda training camps. After being captured by Northern Alliance fighters on Nov. 25, 2001, he was taken to Qala-i-Jangi. |
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| Home Front: WoT |
| John Walker Lindh, American ex-Taliban fighter, to be released in May |
| 2019-03-20 |
| [FoxNews] John Walker Lindh, a former American Taliban militant convicted in 2002 for supporting the terrorist organization, is due to be freed in May. The former Islamist fighter, dubbed “Detainee 001 in the war on terror,” was arrested in 2001, just months after the Sept. 11 attacks and the start of the war in Afghanistan. Then just 20 years old, he was among a group of Taliban fighters who were captured by U.S. forces. Within a year, Walker Lindh was convicted of supporting the Taliban and sentenced to 20 years in prison -- even as some hardliners urged authorities to consider treason charges that could have resulted in the death penalty. Walker Lindh’s release later this year is likely to be met with headaches for security services across the globe, especially since he has since acquired Irish citizenship and plans to move there -- even though he hasn’t denounced radical Islamic ideology and has even made pro-Isis comments to the media. The National Counterterrorism Center penned a document dated Jan. 24, 2017 claiming the former Taliban fighter remains as radicalized now as he was in 2001. “As of May 2016, John Walker Lindh (USPER) — who is scheduled to be released in May 2019 after being convicted of supporting the Taliban — continued to advocate for global jihad and to write and translate violent extremist texts,” the Foreign Policy magazine reported. The report added Walker Lindh told “a television news producer that he would continue to spread violent extremist Islam upon his release.” It appears, however, that the Irish government won’t follow the example of the British government -- which rescinded a Jihadi bride’s British citizenship -- and won’t stop Walker Lindh from entering the country. Walker Lindh confirmed his plans to head to Ireland after his release in remarks he made to CAGE, a London-based organization focused on supporting people impacted by the War on Terror. |
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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Judge in Manafort trial has a sharp wit, sharp tongue |
| 2018-08-03 |
| WASHINGTON (AP) ‐ "I’m not in the theater business," Judge T.S. Ellis asserted during jury selection in Paul Manafort’s financial fraud trial. "You have to be better-looking for that." Objection, Your Honor. The trial of President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman has plenty of drama and it’s coming from the judge. Easily exasperated, and with a sharp wit, the U.S. district judge called out attorneys for both sides this week when he heard they’d been rolling their eyes, apparently at him. The judge judged their expressions to mean, "Why do we have to put up with this idiot judge?" Privately, lawyers who have appeared before him say Thomas Selby Ellis III likes to be seen as the smartest person in the courtroom, not a huge leap for a judge. With his Princeton-Harvard-Oxford education and experience spanning consequential cases in an era of war and terrorism ‐ "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh’s among them ‐ Ellis is known to cut lawyers down to size, sometimes subtly, sometimes not so much. That’s what happened when Justice Department attorney Michael Dreeben, a legend in legal circles, appeared at a pre-trial hearing in the Manafort case. As soon as Dreeben began making his arguments for the prosecution, Ellis cut in ‐ "Would you spell your name for the record?" That’s not a question he asks others appearing in his Washington-area Eastern District of Virginia court. |
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| Home Front: Culture Wars | |
| The Revenge Of The Lost Boys | |
| 2015-07-13 | |
by Tom Nichols
In almost every case, they dress their anger in the clothes of ideology: white supremacy, jihad, hatred of abortion, or anti-government paranoia. Stuck in perpetual adolescence, they see only their own imagined virtue amidst irredeemable corruption... | |
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| Home Front: WoT | |
| American Talibunny wins prison prayer lawsuit | |
| 2013-01-12 | |
| John Walker Lindh, an American who was convicted of helping the Taliban, should be allowed to participate in group prayer with other Muslim inmates at a high-security prison in Terre Haute, a federal judge ruled Friday. The American Taliban fighter sued the Federal Bureau of Prisons, demanding that he and other Muslims in the Federal Correctional Institution should be allowed to conduct group prayers, and that not doing so is a violation of Religious Freedom of Restoration Act of 1993. Prison officials said allowing inmates such congregation poses security risks. Ruling in Lindhs favor, U.S. District Judge Jane Magnus Stinson stated in her decision that the denial of daily group prayer opportunities substantially burdens Mr. Lindhs religious beliefs. Lindh, who claims to follow the Hanbali school of Islam, said Islam requires him to pray with fellow Muslims five times a day daily. In his testimony during a three-day trial in August, he said the restrictions on group prayers were forcing him to sin.
Prison officials said Lindhs demands are not only dangerous, but also not fair to other inmates. Theyre also concerned that allowing group prayers could result in the inmates having a leader. But Stinson said that group prayers have not resulted in serious incidents or security threats in at least the past three years. Nor have such activities led to leadership issues among inmates, she said. If Stinsons decision stands, it could reach beyond the federal prison in Terra Haute. Though the ruling does not bind other federal prisons in other districts, it could encourage other inmates to challenge prison rules if they think their religious freedom is being restricted, said Indianapolis civil rights lawyer Karen Celestino-Horseman. She said, Certainly, when one judge decides that, it does make it more interesting. The biggest impact is that there are going to be other Muslims who follow this particular belief and will certainly look at this case. Ultimately, it would not surprise me at all to see this decision one day end up in the U.S. Supreme Court. | |
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| Home Front: WoT | |
| US prison top chaplain: Clerics advised policy | |
| 2012-08-28 | |
A policy that American-born Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh claims violates his Muslim beliefs by barring inmates in the tightly controlled prison unit where he is held from praying together more than once a week was based on advice from Islamic clerics, the head chaplain of the U.S. prison system says.
The key to the case is the tension between the need for security in a post-9/11 world and guarantees of freedom of religion, even behind bars. According to court documents, Muslims in the tightly controlled Communications Management Unit in Terre Haute -- one of only two in the country -- are allowed to pray together only once a week, except during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Other faiths' gatherings are also limited. At other times, they must pray alone in their individual cells, which Lindh said doesn't meet the requirements of his school of Islam. "I believe it's obligatory," Lindh said of daily group prayer during his testimony Monday. "If you're required to do it in congregation and you don't, then that's a sin." Michael R. Smith Sr., chief chaplain for the Bureau of Prisons, testified Monday in federal court in Indianapolis that the agency consults with leaders of various religions before setting policy. However, he said prison policy doesn't recognize religious services if they aren't led by chaplains. He said officials decided group religious services must be supervised following a 2004 report about efforts to radicalize Muslim inmates following 9/11. The government claims in court documents that Lindh delivered a radical sermon to other Muslim prisoners in February. It also says he delivered the sermon entirely in Arabic, which is not allowed under Bureau of Prison regulations that require all speech but ritual prayers to be in English. Ken Falk, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, which is handling Lindh's case, said the speech wasn't radical and Lindh wasn't disciplined for it. | |
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| Home Front: WoT |
| Islamic Radicalization U.S.A. |
| 2009-12-24 |
| by Ryan Mauro If a major homegrown terrorist attack happens on U.S. soil in the coming years, 2009 will be looked at as the year when the warning signs were missed. According to the Rand Corporation, the U.S. has experienced 30 homegrown terrorism plots since 9/11. One-third of these occurred in 2009; a frightening spike that warrants more attention than it is currently being given by public officials. The Obama Administration began its term by refusing to include terms like "radical Islam" as part of its lexicon. The Global War on Terrorism was alternatively called an "overseas contingency operation" or "a campaign against extremists who wish to do us harm." The Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, described terrorism as a "man-caused disaster. When asked about not even mentioning the word "terrorism" in her first address to Congress, she said, "That is perhaps only a nuance, but it demonstrates that we want to move away from the politics of fear towards a policy of being prepared for all risks that can occur." The homegrown terrorist activity this year has startled the Obama Administration, which now is forced to privately conclude that the radicalization of American-Muslims is increasing. In today's 30-second news culture, shocking incidents such as these quickly fade away as the topic of coverage as other news develops. A summary of some of the biggest incidents this year is needed for the American people to understand how much activity took place: * In May, authorities broke up a plot by four prison converts to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx and fire Stinger missiles at aircraft flying around the Air National Guard base in Newburgh , New York . * On June 1, a Muslim convert shot up a military recruiting center in Arkansas, killing one soldier and wounding another. The attacker, Abdulhakim Muhammad, was previously jailed in Yemen for traveling on a fraudulent Somali passport. Robert Spencer of JihadWatch.org reported that a "well-placed source" informed him that he had gone to Yemen to try to study under a radical cleric named Yahya Hajoori. * In July, seven Muslims were arrested in North Carolina for training with high-powered weapons in preparation to join a jihad overseas. The leader of the group, Daniel Patrick Boyd, had previously trained in guerilla camps in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion and enlisted his two sons in his plans. * In September, FBI and local law enforcement raided two apartments owned by Afghans in New York after the occupants were visited by Najibullah Zazi, a suspected terrorist who had traveled to an Al-Qaeda training camp last year. Nine backpacks and cell phones were confiscated, and Zazi was found to have purchased chemicals similar to those used in the 2005 London subway bombings, causing concern that the suspects were planning an attack styled after that operation. * Also in September, FBI sting operations led to the arrest of two desiring to carry out acts of terror. A Jordanian named Michael Finton, an admirer of the "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh, was arrested for planning to set off car bombs outside of a courthouse in Illinois and a skyscraper in Texas . Hosam Maher Husein Smadi was arrested in Texas after trying to detonate a decoy car bomb underneath an office tower. * In October, the FBI tried to arrest a radical imam in Detroit connected to a range of criminal activity. When they arrived at a warehouse to get Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, he responded with gunfire, killing one of the FBI's dogs before he was shot and killed. Six of his associates were arrested. In the same month, Tarek Mehanna was arrested in Boston for planning to attack a shopping mall and assassinate two public officials. * The next month, Nidal Malik Hassan carried out the horrific shooting at Fort Hood , killing 13 people. He is now known to have previously expressed his support for suicide bombers and to have communicated with Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical imam in Yemen who has acted as a recruiter for Al-Qaeda and praised Hassan's shooting. To this day, President Obama and senior officials have not publicly described the incident as terrorism. * Most recently, five Americans were arrested in Pakistan on their way to link up with the Al-Qaeda and Taliban. They were arrested at the home of a member of the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist group, who is the uncle to one of the suspects. These are only some of the major incidents related to radical Islamic activity in the U.S. that occurred this year. A total of 14 Somali-Americans from Minnesota have been indicted for helping to recruit fellow members of their community to join the Al-Shabaab terrorist group fighting for control of Somalia . The case of Rifqa Bary received considerable attention, as did the honor killing in Arizona of a daughter by her father for being "too Westernized." The Christian Action Network, where I serve as a national security researcher, released the "Homegrown Jihad" documentary in February about the isolated communities in the U.S. run by a radical Islamic group used as paramilitary training and recruitment centers. A new tape provided to me as part of CAN's investigation into the group called "Muslims of the Americas " shows female recruits of the organization receiving such training at their headquarters in New York called "Islamberg." The media is failing to compile all these events and see the frightening increase that the Obama Administration is now admitting exists. When the problem is mentioned, the ideological component is not discussed or is misunderstood. On December 12, Kimberly Dozier reported on the Obama Administration's realization regarding the problem on CBS Evening News, but attributed the rise in homegrown terrorism to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan , saying they were "portrayed by the militants as America 's war on Islam." Dozier also said that "Muslim community leaders here say young people are also being driven to extremes by post-9/11 anti-Muslim propaganda" and cited the Council on American-Islamic Relations as saying that civil rights complaints by Muslims have increased by ten percent in 2009, attempting to draw a connection between bigotry against Muslims and homegrown terrorism. If Dozier had done her research on her source, she would have found that the view of the War on Terror as a war on Islam that she says is causing the increase in homegrown terrorism is actually promoted by CAIR. 2009 should put to rest the idea that any homegrown terrorist plot is an isolated incident. The participants in these plots might not be operationally connected, but a political-religious ideology binds them together. The fight for the home front continues into 2010. |
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| Home Front: WoT |
| Man accused of trying to bomb Dallas building |
| 2009-09-25 |
| A 19-year-old Jordanian man living in Texas was arrested Thursday on charges he intended to bomb a downtown Dallas skyscraper, federal officials said. Hosam Maher Husein Smadi was arrested after placing what he believed to be a car bomb outside the 60-story Fountain Place office tower Thursday, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office in Dallas. The decoy device was given to him by an undercover FBI agent, the statement said. Smadi was charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. Federal officials said the case has no connection with the major terrorism investigation under way in Colorado and New York or the arrest Thursday of a man facing charges in a similar plot in Springfield, Ill. Another Muslim mass murderer are popping out of the woodwork? Common as cockroaches they are. Smadi drove to Dallas on Thursday, met one of the undercover agents and then drove to the targeted building, the FBI agent wrote. Smadi then allegedly drove a vehicle with the device into the parking garage beneath the building, parked it and attempted to detonate the bomb by setting the device's timer and flipping its power switch. Smadi met again with the undercover agent, who drove several blocks away and Smadi dialed a cell phone he was led to believe would detonate the car bomb, according to the affidavit. The case is unrelated to that against Najibullah Zazi, a 24-year-old shuttle driver at the Denver airport also indicted in New York on charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. It was also unrelated to the case against Michael C. Finton, who was accused of planning to bomb the federal courthouse in Springfield, Ill, White said. Another one? What is the score? Three horrific islamic mass murder plots stopped this week. In the Illinois case, a 29-year-old man who idolized American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh was arrested after attempting to detonate what he thought was a bomb inside a van outside a federal courthouse, officials said. Unpaid parking ticket? Michael C. Finton, also known as Talib Islam, was arrested and charged in a criminal complaint with one count of attempting to murder federal officers or employees and trying to detonate a weapon of mass destruction. But the Media told us if we elected Hussien Obama and kowtowed to the Saudis and Iranians, the muslims would love us. |
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| Home Front: WoT | ||
| Illinois man charged in plot to bomb federal offices | ||
| 2009-09-25 | ||
| WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (Reuters) - An Illinois man was ordered held on Thursday on charges he tried to blow up a federal building in the state capital, a case unrelated to the New York terrorism plot. Michael Finton, also known as Talib Islam, was arrested in Springfield, Illinois, and charged with attempted murder of federal officers or employees and trying to use a weapon of mass destruction, charges that carry a life sentence. "Fortunately, a coordinated undercover law enforcement effort was able to thwart his efforts and ensure no one was harmed," David Kris, assistant Attorney General for National Security, said in a statement. Finton was arrested on Wednesday in Springfield as he used a cell phone to try to detonate the bomb he believed was inside a van he had just parked outside the federal building.
Finton said he worked part-time as a restaurant cook, according to the State Journal-Register newspaper. The criminal complaint said Finton, 29, converted to Islam while in prison on other charges. It said he idolized an American who allied with the Taliban, John Walker Lindh, drawing the attention of law enforcement authorities.
In early 2009, "it appeared that Finton was on the verge of taking action, so it was decided to proactively provide him with an opportunity for action that we controlled, rather than merely hoping to be able to find out and stop him," according to a government affidavit. He was introduced to an undercover FBI agent who began working with him to plot an attack, but Finton was repeatedly told he could walk away at any time, according to the Justice Department. Eventually, Finton picked the federal building in Springfield as the target and on Wednesday he parked a van he believed carried one ton of explosives at the location, the complaint said. The Justice Department said the case was unrelated to another suspected terrorism plot in New York, where an Afghan-born man was charged with conspiring to launch a bombing attack in the United States using chemicals that form triacetone triperoxide. | ||
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The argument here is not that Bergdahl and Snowden are potential killers, or that all introverted or awkward young men threats to society. Indeed, any man who has never gone through phases of introversion and awkwardness is unusual. In fact, sometimes extroverted young men are monsters: in the case of the Boston bombing, the older Tsarnaev brother fits the bill of the creepy, disappointed narcissist, while his younger brother, now sentenced to death, really does seem to be nothing more than an aimless pothead who knew how to have a good time, but who could not bear to disappoint his weird brother.