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The defense begins
Compiled from Times wires John Walker Lindh, the young Californian whose bedraggled, bearded look put a puzzling face on America's Taliban foe, stood before a federal judge on Thursday, looking all the more again the young man next door. U.S. Magistrate Judge W. Curtis Sewell looked down at Lindh, now shorn of flowing beard and hair, and asked him if he understood that he is charged with conspiring to kill Americans and providing support to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network. "Yes, I understand," said Lindh, at his first court appearance since being arrested in Afghanistan last month. When Sewell asked Lindh if he had any questions, he quietly replied, "No, I don't have any questions." Lindh, 20, wore a dark green jumpsuit with "PRISONER" emblazoned across the back. For most of the brief hearing, he stared straight ahead, his arms by his side. His parents, Frank Lindh and his ex-wife, Marilyn Walker, watched from the second row in the packed courtroom. Their son did not look at them. Outside the hearing, Frank Lindh told reporters that he and his ex-wife saw their son before the hearing. It was the first time in two years. Lindh said his son is innocent of the charges against him, but he did not elaborate on how his son became involved with the Taliban. "John loves America, we love America," said Frank Lindh, speaking on behalf of his ex-wife. "John did not do anything against America. John did not take up arms against America. He never meant to harm any American, and he never did harm any American. John is innocent of these charges." Lindh's mother said she was grateful to see her son and to have him back on American soil. "My love for him is unconditional and absolute," Walker said. "I'm grateful to God that he has been brought home to his family, to me, his home, his country." Before Thursday's hearing, with Lindh's defense lawyers saying they urgently needed time with him, the parents had just 20 minutes for a family reunion in a courthouse interview room -- separated from their son by a wire screen and, unlike his lawyers, monitored by the FBI. At the request of federal prosecutors, Lindh will be held until a Feb. 6 bond hearing. The criminal complaint accuses him of conspiring to kill U.S. nationals, providing material support to two terrorist organizations and engaging in prohibited commercial and financial transactions with the Taliban. Lindh's case has captured the attention of many Americans. Television and radio talk shows are buzzing with citizens and pundits struggling to understand how a teenager from an affluent California suburb could end up in Afghanistan as a follower of bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorist group. The case also fascinates legal experts because it is rare, if not unprecedented, that an American citizen is captured behind enemy lines during a war and charged in the U.S. criminal justice system. James J. Brosnahan, the San Francisco attorney who heads Lindh's five-member defense team, urged the throng of reporters outside the courthouse to remember that his client is innocent until proven guilty. Brosnahan said his client did not learn of the charges against him until he stepped off the plane from Afghanistan on Wednesday night. He said since Lindh's arrest in early December, he was denied legal counsel despite repeated requests to talk to a lawyer. "For 54 days, he was held incommunicado," Brosnahan said. "While he was kept away from a lawyer, officials in the federal government leaked or stated out loud their understanding of the evidence in the case in violation of the rule of this courthouse." U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty disputed that, saying Lindh's rights have been upheld. "We are going to make sure as best as we possibly can that he is afforded every right," McNulty said. McNulty said the criminal complaint filed against Lindh last week at the federal court in Alexandria, Va., states that Lindh rejected his right to legal counsel. In that 12-page court document, FBI Agent Anne E. Asbury said that she read Lindh his Miranda rights in Afghanistan before questioning him about his involvement with the Taliban and bin Laden. "Walker acknowledged that he understood each of those rights and then waived those rights," Asbury said in the sworn affidavit filed with the complaint. Brosnahan's comments were a clear swipe at Attorney General John Ashcroft, who announced the charges against Lindh at a news conference last week. Ashcroft was asked Thursday about Brosnahan's suggestion that he had broken a rule of the court by talking about the criminal complaint at a news conference. Ashcroft said his public comments about the case came from the criminal complaint itself. "John Walker Lindh chose to fight with the Taliban, to train with al-Qaida and to be led away, to be led by Osama bin Laden," Ashcroft said. "John Walker chose to join terrorists who wanted to kill Americans. And he chose to waive his right to an attorney, both orally and in writing, before his statement to the FBI." Lindh said he was relieved to see that his son was in good physical condition, but he was disturbed to hear that he did not get medical treatment until he was aboard the USS Bataan in the Arabian sea, before being flown to the United States. At a Pentagon news briefing Thursday, questions were raised about Lindh's treatment while in custody. Asked whether Lindh received necessary medical treatment before being sequestered aboard the U.S. Navy ship, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, nodded in assent. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said his "recollection is that I was told that he did." According to the criminal complaint, Lindh told FBI investigators that he learned from one of his instructors at an al-Qaida training camp that bin Laden had sent "people to the United States to carry out several suicide operations," but that he did nothing to alert American authorities. Lindh told the FBI that he had trained for seven weeks at the training camp run by al-Qaida and had met briefly with bin Laden before joining the Taliban forces. Lindh told the FBI that as a Taliban soldier he went to the front lines to defend the Taliban and bin Laden against anticipated attacks from the United States in retaliation for the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Answering a question that has baffled the government and American public since the American's capture, Brosnahan said his client uses the family last name of Lindh. As a teenager, he adopted the Muslim name Suleyman, and on the battlefields of Afghanistan he was known as Abdul Hamid. In recent years he had dropped his father's surname and asked to be known by his mother's last name, Walker. When first captured in Afghanistan, Lindh identified himself as John Walker. An FBI affidavit filed in the case, based on a Dec. 9-10 interview, identifies him that way. The government identifies him as John Walker Lindh in the criminal complaint against him. What happens next?Lindh returns to court Feb. 6 to learn whether he will continue to be held. A preliminary hearing could be held at the same time if prosecutors feel they have probable cause to bring charges. In the meantime, the U.S. government may present its information to a federal grand jury. If that jury issues an indictment, the Feb. 6 hearing could turn into an arraignment rather than a preliminary hearing. Until then, Lindh will spend 23 hours a day in an 80-square-foot jail cell with "very limited activities" and little contact with other inmates, said Alexandria, Va., Sheriff James H. Dunning. He will get exercise and shower time. Lindh also will spend time with his attorneys. After his hearing Thursday, he met with Brosnahan for an hour and a half to prepare for the trial. -- The Washington Post, Cox newspapers and Associated Press contributed to this report.
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From the Times wire desk
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