John Walker Lindh

I recently listened to the Friday July 31 edition of democracy now with Amy Goodman and learned new information about the man once called "the american taliban". John Walker Lindh (Sulayman Lindh) is sitting in Terre Haute for the next decade on some charges unrelated to terrorism or aiding and abetting terrorism.
John Walker turns out to be from Marin county California and from his parents comments in the interview, was taken in by islam while watching the 1996 movie. X. The story of Malcolm X... I find this interesting as this was also my first introduction to Islam as well, Alex Haley's Malcolm X biography. After listening to the entire interview with his parents I'm impressed by the character of these people and the enormity of their struggle. This story has all the makings of a great movie or far reaching tell all bio of the backstory behind the war on terror. If I don't start seeing college activists holding "FREE Sulayman LINDH" posters soon I'll be very surprised...

http://openleft.com/diary/14442/john-walker-lindha-lens-and-a-mirror

"In their first extended interview, the parents of John Walker Lindh, Marilyn Walker and Frank Lindh, join us for the hour to tell their son's story. He was born in Washington, DC in 1981. At the age of sixteen, he converted to Islam. In 1999, Lindh left the United States for Yemen to study Arabic and the Koran. He later traveled to Pakistan and then to Afghanistan, before 9/11, where he received military training from the US-backed, Taliban-run Afghan Army to fight against the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan's civil war. He was captured in late 2001, found emaciated and wounded, one of the few to survive a massacre by the Northern Alliance. To his parents' relief, he was handed to US forces, but they brutalized him, as well. Donald Rumsfeld had ordered them to "take the gloves off." He was designated Detainee 001 in the war on terror. When he returned to the United States in January 2002, he was being held as a prisoner accused of conspiring to kill Americans. As part of a plea deal, Lindh pleaded guilty to serving in the Taliban army and carrying weapons and was given a twenty-year sentence."