In Defense of John Walker Lindh

March 16 - When John Walker Lindh was captured in Afghanistan last December, he told reporters that he joined the Taliban because his “heart became attached to them.” But according to documents his lawyers filed in federal court in Virginia on Friday, Lindh actually feared his comrades more than he loved them. After learning of the September 11 attacks, the documents say, Lindh “was obviously disillusioned...and wanted to leave his Taliban unit but could not do so for fear of death.”

THAT, LINDH’S LAWYERS say, is what the frightened American told his military interrogators in the days after his arrest. But, they charge, Lindh’s comments were omitted from internal reports that the government later used to prepare its case against Lindh. Lindh, who is being held in an Alexandria jail, goes on trial Aug. 26 on conspiracy and terrorism charges. If convicted on all four charges, he faces 90 years to life in prison.

How many times did Walker Lindh change his story? When first asked in the hours after his capture by NEWSWEEK reporter Colin Soloway whether he supported the September 11 attacks, Walker paused, and then said “That requires a pretty long and complicated explanation. I haven’t eaten for two or three days, and my mind is not really in shape to give you a coherent answer.” But when pressed, he said, “Yes, I supported it.”

Lindh made the comment after being dragged from a prison basement, where he had survived a failed eight-day uprising by Taliban POWs. Lindh’s lawyers now seem to imply that Lindh, who had been shot in the leg, may have been medicated and was not thinking clearly when he made the statement.

In discovery motions filed on Friday, Lindh’s lawyers also asked the government for medical records and other documents that may help them establish whether Lindh was under the influence of pain medication—or was somehow coerced— when he allegedly confessed to being a member of Al Qaeda.

Because the prosecution’s case rests largely on statements Lindh allegedly made to his government interrogators, Lindh’s lawyers are working furiously to have the confession suppressed by showing that it was coerced. By January, when the government was preparing charges against Lindh, his lawyers say, Justice Department officials were relying not on original notes from the December interviews with Lindh, but on secondhand reports that “reflect, consciously or not, developing theories of the prosecution’s case.”

The government has until March 29 to produce the medical records and other evidence. If it does not, Lindh’s lawyers will ask the Judge to compel the government to do so. A hearing is scheduled for April 1. The government has not commented on the defense request.

But it’s unlikely all the exculpatory material the defense has asked for—much of it classified—will be handed over. (Among other things, defense attorneys want the government to publicly identify a CIA agent identified as “Confidential Source-1”, who was present at the prison riot where CIA agent Johnny Michael Spann was killed.) But even a portion of the material requested may bolster the defense argument that Lindh was threatened and coerced into making statements now being used against him.

The defense team is also trying to force the government to identify the succession of military officials and FBI agents who interrogated Lindh during the seven weeks he was kept in the battle zone so that they can be called as witnesses. His lawyers have asked for any photos and videos the government took of Lindh while he was held, allegedly shackled naked inside a shipping container. They also want “souvenir” snapshots that Lindh’s military guardians took with their famous captive while he was held at a Marine base in Afghanistan and later aboard a Marine ship in the Arabian Sea.

Lindh’s lawyers say that all of the information they seek will demonstrate the “highly coercive conditions under which the interrogations upon which the government relies took place.”

© 2003 Newsweek, Inc.