John Walker Lindh
John Walker Lindh (born February 9, 1981, Washington, D.C., U.S.) is a U.S. citizen who was captured along with Taliban fighters in Afghanistan during the Afghanistan War in 2001. In 2002 he agreed to a plea bargain and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Lindh was released in 2019.
The son of a corporate lawyer and a commercial photographer, Lindh grew up in a suburb in northern California. At age 16 he was inspired to convert to Islam by the autobiography of Black Muslim leader Malcolm X.
In 1998 Lindh traveled to Yemen to study Arabic. He later enrolled at a religious school in Pakistan. In early May 2001 Lindh joined a paramilitary training camp organized by a Kashmiri separatist group based in Pakistan. He became attracted to the religious doctrines of the Taliban movement, and in late May he traveled to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban against the Northern Alliance, an Afghan anti-Taliban coalition. He received several weeks of paramilitary training at a camp run by al-Qaeda near Kandahār. He was then sent to fight in Mazār-e Sharīf.
In late November 2001 Lindh and other Taliban fighters surrendered to the Northern Alliance near Kunduz and were imprisoned in the Qala-e Janghi fortress outside Mazār-e Sharīf. Lindh was wounded in the thigh by bullets or shrapnel during a prison uprising on November 25 and spent nearly a week trapped in the basement of the fortress while Northern Alliance troops fought to subdue the uprising. He was eventually recaptured and transferred to U.S. custody.
Lindh was held and interrogated at U.S. bases in Afghanistan for two weeks before being transferred to a navy ship in the Arabian Sea, where he was held for several more weeks. He was transported back to the United States in January 2002, and criminal charges including conspiring to kill U.S. citizens and aiding a terrorist organization were filed against him. Lindh’s lawyers claimed that he had been subjected to torture (including the denial of medical treatment for his injuries) during his detention and interrogation in Afghanistan.
In July 2002 Lindh’s lawyers reached a plea bargain with federal prosecutors. Lindh agreed to plead guilty to charges of supplying services to the Taliban in violation of U.S. sanctions and carrying weapons while committing a crime, and he also agreed to drop his claims that he had been tortured while in custody. In return, the more serious charges of supporting terrorism and conspiring to kill U.S. citizens were dropped. In October 2002 Lindh was sentenced to 20 years in prison. While incarcerated he obtained (2013) Irish citizenship through his paternal grandmother.
In 2019 Lindh was released from prison after his sentence was shortened by three years for good behaviour. Although he faced strict probation restrictions—notably, he was barred from international travel, he needed permission to use the Internet, and he was to be closely monitored—his release drew much criticism. Various letters and comments by Lindh raised concerns that he continued to support violent extremism.
