John Walker Lindh

Who is John Walker Lindh?

John Phillip Walker Lindh is an American citizen who was captured as an enemy combatant during the United States' 2001 invasion of Afghanistan in November 2001. He was captured and detained at Qala-i-Jangi, used as a prison. He took part in the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi, a violent uprising of the Taliban prisoners, during which the Central Intelligence Agency officer Johnny "Mike" Spann was killed, together with all but 86 of the estimated 300-500 prisoners. Brought to trial in United States federal court in February 2002, Lindh accepted a plea bargain; he pleaded guilty to two charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison without parole.

A convert to Islam in California at age 16, Lindh went to Yemen in 1998 to study Arabic for 10 months. He later returned in 2000, then went to Afghanistan to aid the fighters. He received training at Al-Farouq, a training camp associated with Al-Qaeda, designated a terrorist organization by the United States and other countries. There, he attended a lecture by Osama bin Laden and said he found him "unimpressive". He did not know about the planned September 11, 2001 attacks. After the attacks, he continued to stay and fight after he learned that the US was allied with the Northern Alliance. Lindh had previously received training with Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, an internationally designated terrorist organization based in Pakistan.