ny.transfer.news

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So-called "American Taliban" seeks reduced sentence

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

AP via Yahoo - Apr 5, 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070405/...erican_taliban


American Taliban seeks reduced sentence

By PAUL ELIAS
Associated Press Writer

SAN FRANCISCO - The lawyer and parents of American-born Taliban soldier John
Walker Lindh asked President Bush on Wednesday to commute his 20-year prison
term, citing the case of an Australian man who was sentenced to less than a
year for aiding terrorism.

Lindh, 26, was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001 by American forces
sent to topple the Taliban after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He was
charged with conspiring to kill Americans and support terrorists but pleaded
guilty to lesser offenses, including carrying weapons against U.S. forces.

Lindh's lawyer and father said the lighter sentence given to Australian
David Hicks should be reflected in Lindh's case.

"It is a question of proportionality. It is a question of fairness, and it
is a question of the religious experience John Walker Lindh had," attorney
James Brosnahan said. "And it was not in any way directed at the United
States."

Lindh converted to Islam and went to Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban
against the Northern Alliance, which received U.S. backing.

On Saturday, Hicks pleaded guilty to supporting terrorism and acknowledged
aiding al-Qaida during the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. He was
sentenced to nine months in prison. After spending five years at the U.S.
naval base in Cuba, the 31-year-old former kangaroo skinner is likely to be
transferred to a prison in Australia within weeks.

Brosnahan brokered Lindh's plea deal and said it was the best he could do in
the political climate immediately after the 2001 attacks.

"In the atmosphere of the time, the best John could get was a plea bargain
and a 20-year sentence," said Lindh's father, Frank Lindh. "We love our son
very much. He was wrongly accused when he was found in Afghanistan."

The White House referred telephone calls to the Justice Department, which
declined to comment because it had not received Lindh's petition.

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Shorten it to 40 years without parole. He was there to kill US troops
- classified as an enemy combatant.

He made the bed - let him lie in it.

¥ ultraman ¥

Why do you lie?


Evidence of the Criminal Bu$h Junta's disregard for Human Rights.


And may the U$A continue to lie in their bed as it burns ...