By Johnny Spann
As told to Verne Strickland / November 21, 2011
American Traitor John Walker Lindh
As told to Verne Strickland / November 21, 2011
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CIA operative Mike Spann has gone to an ancient fortress prison in Afghanistan to interview Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners. By telephone, Mike tells his father, Johnny Spann, who is at his home in the U.S., that he expects to gain hard evidence that might lead to the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden. Mike -- a former Marine -- is in the vanguard of elite U.S. intelligence officers committed to tracking down the arch-terrorist.American Traitor John Walker Lindh
It is November 25, 2001, and Mike senses that he may be close to a breakthrough. In retrospect, it is chilling to realize that the 32-two-year-old Alabama native is actually closer to his own death than to the information he seeks.
A video taken of these crucial moments by an Afghan cameraman, and discovered later by Johnny Spann, pieces together what took place. The three-minute clip has surfaced on U.S. television. Johnny picks up the story:
The television networks were running this little clip showing Mike in front of a guy on a pallet on the ground. Mike was kneeling on the ground and this guy was sitting in front of him. Mike is trying to get the man to tell who he is, what he is doing there, and those things. That man is John Walker Lindh. On the video our people were trying to determine who the prisoners were, and they were putting them in little rows by nationalities -- where is this guy from? Is he a Turk? They had to start somewhere so they were trying to segregate them out.
They get this one guy and he doesn’t look like an Afghan, he’s all dirty and nasty and long hair and beard, so Mike’s wanting him to open up and tell him, but the man never says a word. Nobody else could have even heard what he was saying.
He could have said to Mike – look, I’m an American and I’m in the wrong place at the wrong time. There’s going to be an uprising here and our lives are in jeopardy. I don’t know what’s going to happen. But he never said that. He never said anything.
Nobody could have even heard what he was saying. The only reason we know what he was trying to say is that the video man was shooting video and recorded it.
Then shortly after that – the uprising starts. It was too late then. After a lot of twists and turns, I did get a copy of the video. It answered a lot of questions for me. But not all.
Entry from Wikipedia:
On February 5, 2002, Lindh was indicted by a federal grand jury on ten charges:[29]
He could have said to Mike – look, I’m an American and I’m in the wrong place at the wrong time. There’s going to be an uprising here and our lives are in jeopardy. I don’t know what’s going to happen. But he never said that. He never said anything.
Nobody could have even heard what he was saying. The only reason we know what he was trying to say is that the video man was shooting video and recorded it.
If Lindh had just come clean at this time -- just told Mike that he was an American, then Mike would have gotten out of there. And Lindh would have gotten out of there with him -- if he had warned about what was about to take place.
Entry from Wikipedia:
On February 5, 2002, Lindh was indicted by a federal grand jury on ten charges:[29]
- Conspiracy to murder US citizens or US nationals
- Two counts of providing material support and resources to terrorist organizations
- One count of supplying services to the Taliban.
- Conspiracy to contribute services to Al Qaeda
- Contributing services to Al Qaeda
- Conspiracy to supply services to the Taliban
- Using and carrying firearms and destructive devices during crimes of violence
John Phillip Walker Lindh (born February 9, 1981) is a United States citizen who was captured as an enemy combatant during the United States' 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. He is now serving a 20-year prison sentence in connection with his participation in Afghanistan's Taliban army. He was captured during the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi, a violent Taliban prison uprising during which Central Intelligence Agency officer Johnny "Mike" Spann was killed.
At Lyndh's trial, Michael Chertoff, then head of the criminal division of the U.S. Department of Justice, directed the prosecutors to offer Lindh a plea bargain, to which, Lindh would plead guilty to two charges: — supplying services to the Taliban (, , 31 C.F.R. 545.204, and 31 C.F.R. 545.206a) and carrying an explosive during the commission of a felony ().
He would also have to consent to a gag order that would prevent him from making any public statements on the matter for the duration of his 20-year sentence, and he would have to drop any claims that he had been mistreated or tortured by U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan and aboard two military ships during December 2001 and January 2002. In return, all other charges would be dropped. The gag order was supposedly at the request of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.[1]
Lindh accepted this offer. On July 15, 2002, he entered his plea of guilty to the two remaining charges. The judge asked Lindh to say, in his own words, what he was admitting to. Lindh's allocution went as follows: "I plead guilty", he said. "I provided my services as a soldier to the Taliban last year from about August to December. In the course of doing so, I carried a rifle and two grenades. I did so knowingly and willingly knowing that it was illegal."
Lindh further commented that he "went to Afghanistan with the intention of fighting against terrorism and oppression," fighting for the suffering of ordinary people at the hands of the Northern Alliance.[1]
On October 4, 2002, Judge T.S. Ellis, III formally imposed the sentence: 20 years without parole.[30
NEXT: FINAL INSTALLMENT -- MIKE SPANN'S FATHER CONCLUDES THIS TRAGIC SAGA WITH SOME STRAIGHT TALK FOR THE WHITE HOUSE: 'THEY DIDN'T HAVE THE COURAGE TO DO WHAT THEY NEEDED TO IN 1992.'
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