Walker not to be charged with treason

Report: Treason charges ruled out

NBC: American Taliban Walkerto face charges of supporting terrorists

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 — Prosecutors are preparing to charge American Taliban John Walker Lindh with violating a recently passed federal law that makes it a crime to provide support to terrorists, U.S. officials told NBC News’ Pete Williams.

The Justice Department has apparently ruled out charging him with treason, given the demanding legal standard set by the Constitution and the difficulty of finding witnesses from the Taliban who would testify against Walker.

INSTEAD, WALKER is to be charged with providing material support to a terrorist organization. The maximum penalty for a conviction on that charge is 10 years in prison.

The 20-year-old Californian was captured earlier this month after a prison uprising during which CIA agent Mike Spann was killed by Taliban fighters.

Officials told NBC News that Walker could be formally charged within the next few days.

Some United States officials favor charging Walker, who goes by his mother’s last name, in a military court-martial, not a civilian court. But legal scholars say that would not be a good fit.

Gene Fidell, a military law expert, said a court-martial is only for a member of the U.S. military or someone who has committed a war crime. And, he said, there’s no reason to think Walker committed any kind of heinous war crime.

For now, Walker is in military custody on a Navy ship, and prosecutors have not yet decided where in the United States to take him to face charges.

“He is being given all his rights, which are far more than the rights the Taliban or the al Qaida extended to anybody living there,” said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.

Administration officials say the president is keeping close tabs on the case.

WALKER DENIED LAWYER

The White House said Wednesday the U.S. denial of a lawyer for Walker was appropriate because he is a “battlefield detainee” governed by the Geneva Convention.

Walker’s fate has sparked has been a growing side story to America’s war in Afghanistan with a debate breaking out over how the is to be treated after leaving his home country to join up with the Taliban.

Some legal experts questioned Walker’s treatment, insisting he was entitled to a lawyer under the U.S. Constitution.

His family has demanded he be allowed to see an attorney. His parents, Frank Lindh and Marilyn Walker, have attempted to portray their son, who converted to Islam at the age of 16, as a misguided idealist rather than a hard-core Muslim extremist.

“He is being treated as someone who fought against the United States in an armed conflict, and that’s why he is classified properly as a battlefield detainee, and he’s being treated well,” said Fleischer.

Walker has told U.S. authorities he was a member of al-Qaida, the militant network led by Osama bin Laden that Bush blames for the Sept. 11 attacks, Pentagon officials said.

GENEVA CONVENTION CITED

“Right now Mr. Walker is being treated in a manner consistent with the Geneva Convention’s protection for enemy belligerents who are captured as prisoners of war,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

“So long as he is in military custody and is not being questioned for law enforcement purposes he does not have the constitutional right to a lawyer,” McClellan said.

Under the Geneva Convention protecting prisoners of war, he said, military authorities may question prisoners for information that is of military value in the conduct of the war without the presence of a lawyer.

Michael Ratner, vice president of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, challenged the White House’s assertion, saying the Geneva Convention does not provide for the term “battlefield detainee.”

“It’s a new term. It’s unheard of. There is no status battlefield detainee, they are making that up,” Ratner said, adding that Walker was essentially arrested by the United States and, under the U.S. Constitution, was entitled to a lawyer.

He said the refusal of the U.S. government to allow counsel “is not what our country is about.”

FAMILY INSISTS ON HIS RIGHTS

Walker initially was held at the U.S. Marines’ Camp Rhino outside the southern Afghan city of Kandahar and was taken to the USS Peleliu in the Arabian Sea last Friday.

Walker’s family lawyer, James Brosnahan, of San Francisco, insisted Monday that Walker has constitutional rights, “whatever the accusation.”

“Getting to the facts, allowing an accused person to talk with his attorney, ensuring that our system operates fairly regardless of the allegation — that is what the Constitution was designed to protect,” Brosnahan said in a statement.

He said Walker’s parents had been rebuffed repeatedly in their requests for information about their son or permission to see him.

McClellan said Walker only has the right to an attorney, if he requests one, once he is held in “custodial interrogation by law enforcement personnel.”

“He is being detained in a manner consistent with the Geneva Convention’s protections and he has been given medical care and received the protection of the United States Armed Forces in these dangerous battlefield conditions,” McClellan said.

Former President George Bush, the current president’s father, proposed what he called a “unique penalty” for Walker. “Make him leave his hair the way it is and his face as dirty as it is and let him go wandering around this country and see what kind of sympathy he would get. I mean, he’s just despicable,” the elder Bush told ABC’S “Good Morning America.”

http://www.msnbc.com/news/675389.asp

Unbelievable. Get caught dealing drugs and get life in prison, go to war against your country and get no more than 10 years...

 

He knew damn well that Americans were fighting alongside the Northern Alliance. Mike Span interrogated him just hours before his buddies killed Span, so he knew full well that US troops were fighting with the Northern Alliance.

I think there's probably enough to get him on treason, or certainly conspiracy to commit murder (that's almost certain). But whatever; I think it's safe to say that whatever happens to this loser, his life is irreversibly f*ed up. He won't be able to walk down the street unless he visits a really good plastic surgeon first...

Some good ole boy will deal out his own brand of justice, or he'll be killed in prison. Prison "accidents" happen all the time, and I bet the guards won't exactly give him preferential treatment...

 

Maybe he will be segregated. Maybe he won't. Prison accidents still happen all the time... As do suicides.

And when he gets out someone with a concealed firearm will see him walking down the street and think "Hey, isn't that...? Hmm..." and follow him home...

His life is f*ed either way.

 

WTF does that have to do with it, R0ckets03?

You're not going to try and turn this into a racism-thing, are you???

 

Yeah, you guys are right. If he was a brown man, he'd get the chair for treason. Or, a good old fashioned lynching-by-the-bonfire.

I've just got to say, that's a pretty stupid insinuation. I've heard some dumb ones since this all started, but... Race matters exactly zero in this war. ZERO.

I don't give a crap if this guy is white, black, yellow, brown, red, orange, purple, green, plaid - I don't give a s*it, and neither does anyone else. He's a traitor, and the only ones who don't seem to realize that are the opportunistic sleazebag lawyers who would jump at the chance to take his case.