Johnny Spann: 'If we had moved on Osama bin Laden in 1992, the War on Terror might never have taken place.'

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / November 22, 2011

THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH OF 

AMERICAN HERO MIKE SPANN IS NOVEMBER 25, 2011.

Johnny Spann has spilled a lot of information and emotion as he talked with me on his cell phone from his home in Alabama. Our conversations took place in October and early November of this year. 

I am deeply grateful to this soft-spoken and genteel grandfather for sharing his innermost thoughts on the death of his son Mike in 2001 in Afghanistan -- what happened and what might have happened. How decisive action in Washington as far back as 1992 could have changed the course of American history, heading off the costly, bitter and prolonged War on Terror.

We have covered a lot of ground, but there is more to say. Johnny picks up the conversation:

***********

I remember Mike everyday and we commemorate his death everyday, and more importantly, his life. His two daughters of course live here. I don’t want them to ever forget their father, and I know they won’t. 

Emily was only four years old when Mike died. Alison was old enough that she remembers her dad really well. We’re not going to have any kind of special memorial anywhere. The tenth year doesn’t mean anything more to me than the first year. 

Will you bottom line this for me? What I’m seeing is your feeling that if there had been any courage in Washington, and if we had gone after bin Laden in 1992 and stood up for America, your son might be alive today.

Yes, not only Mike but many others. But I don’t want to come off as radical. In ten years of thinking about this, I'm reminded of  the old saying – fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. History keeps repeating itself, and what are we letting ourselves in for now? 

We’re pulling out of Iraq and we may not have a choice, but from where I’m sitting it seems like there should be more choices. I’m afraid we’re going to be doing the same thing in Afghanistan. And we’re going to leave and it’s going to be just like it was when the Soviets pulled out of there.We’re so vulnerable to the actions of all these radicals and the Taliban. It will just be done again. 

I am really proud of the fact that we were finally able to find bin Laden, but in my own mind I can’t see Obama getting all the credit for that. In the first interview, I was impressed that when the time and opportunity were right to take out bin Laden, the president didn’t say no. 

But as far as leading up to that point, I think all the things the Bush administration had put into effect through the years were very important in finally cornering and killing bin Laden. In any case, I’m still proud we got him, but the thing is, if we had gotten him in 1992 we could probably have abolished Al-Queda very easily..

 I have another question – are you not a Christian?

 

Yes I am. 

I know you are. I can hear it in your comments and thoughts. Has that faith sustained you through this long, terrible ordeal?

Well I think so. I’m not going to try to say that it’s just my faith in God. But I want to tell you one more quick story, and I don’t want to bore you.

Believe me that won’t happen.

Right after Mike died, people come up to you and say I’m really sorry, you know, you’ve just got realize it’s God’s will, it’s part of God’s plan, and you’ve just got to accept it. And that was just like taking a knife and sticking it right in my heart.
 

There was one particular lady -- she came by she said just to say hi. She sat down in my office and was talking about her faith in God, and her family’s faith in God, and that she was in God’s favor and her family was in God’s favor, and that God protected her and her family.  

I let her go on, and she talked about how she prayed every day and she let God take care of them and He did, and all. But I said, are you telling me that because I wasn’t a good enough person or Mike wasn’t a good enough Christian, that I didn’t pray hard enough or Mike didn’t pray hard enough? Then you are saying Mike was such a bad person that God just let him die?

She said well, I’m just telling you that God can move mountains if he wants to. 

I said yeah, okay, I believe that. And then she went through this thing about being in God’s favor, and I said, well I’ll tell you what – I think sin came into the world back in the Garden of Eden. Up until that time there wasn’t going to be any crime and there wasn’t going to be any death, and there wasn’t going to be anything but happiness. But we were given a choice, and man sinned. And when he sinned, a whole different set of rules came into play. 

And I said I don’t believe that God made those people kill Mike. I don’t believe that no matter how much we could have prayed, that Mike would have come out of that situation alive. Because you had 600 prisoners there and they all attacked one man. And I don’t believe there was a way that he could have survived, no matter how much we prayed, and how good he was. 

I told the church congregation I think Mike was over there doing something that had to be done. But I don’t think it was in God’s plan that He said I am going to send Mike Spann there and he’s going to get killed. I said I just can’t believe that because if I do I’ll be mad at God. 

Mike left three little kids – a six-month-old boy who will never remember his father holding him in his arms, and a four-year-old daughter who it’s doubtful will remember him, and a nine-year-old who cried her eyes out when I told her that her daddy was dead. I just can’t believe that. 

I said let’s walk out in front of my office, and we’re going to stand there, and when the first eighteen-wheeler comes down the road I want you to step out in front of it, and I want you to pray, as a matter of fact we’ll pray together that that truck won’t kill you. 

Well I can’t do that.

I said then you need to back up on what you’re saying. Then I got invited to a nice little prayer breakfast in Cullman Alabama, and it was preachers and Christians and all denominations held at one of the big auditoriums there. I guess there were three or four hundred people there. And I thought about it as I was driving over and wondered well what am I going to say? I thought they were going me to talk about just what you asked me here – did I think my faith in God is what got me through this, but I’d been told that so many times, this was God’s plan and this was God’s will, and I just need to accept it.

So when I got there, and got to the podium, I told them I realize everyone has a right to their own opinion, and I have something I really want to talk to you about, and I want you to think about it. I said that if you’re guilty of saying this kind of thing, you might want to change your ways and the way you say it. 

The first thing I want to tell you is when you walk up to somebody like me that’s just lost their son, whether it be in war, or in a car accident, or whatever, the most fitting thing you can say to them is I’m so sorry for your loss. I wish I could change it, but I’m so sorry for your loss. 

God’s will in the Garden of Eden was nobody would die and nobody would be hurt and there would be no pain. But man made the decision himself to break God’s rule and sin and brought sin into the world. You can say He allowed this to happen, but no matter how much we had prayed, I don’t believe we could have brought Mike out of that situation alive. 

After the service, there were some who didn’t come by to shake my hand, but there were numbers of people that stood in line to shake my hand and tell me that they’d never thought about that, and that they realized what I was saying and where I was coming from.

All of them might have believed they were saying something good. But the truth is, what they were saying was just cutting me to the bone. They seemed to be suggesting that Mike just wasn’t a good enough person. He had just sinned too much or something. 

On this tenth anniversary I just want people to look back at all those who have given their lives – not only Mike, but so many more. These guys just keep going back and giving of themselves. At some point they’re going to give out, but we can learn from the experiences we’ve had. I believe that if we go back to 1992 to 2000, and how we handled our foreign affairs, and misused our money, and the things that we cut, was very poor judgement.

When Mike called me and told me he was going to go with the CIA, that night we had a long conversation, and one of the things he said to me was, Dad, the American people are going to be paying for the things that have gone on in this Clinton administration for many years to come. 

Mike was aware, and a thinking person, and that was his take on the follow-up to cutting back our military, (early 1999). Even with all he did putting himself in harm’s way, he seemed to feel that he wasn’t doing enough. But all of us – each one of us – needs to give and contribute to our country. I’m too old to go and fight, but any influence I can have by passing on these things that have happened, I think I need to say it.

***********

VS: Mike Spann was an extraordinary American. And I say that his father, Johnny Spann, belongs in the same elite company too. Both have sacrificed so much. May we be forever grateful. God bless these two heroes, and their families. Each and every one.

Email. Johnnyspann@hotmailcom.

American traitor John Walker Lindh chooses not to save CIA agent Mike Spann.

By Johnny Spann 
As told to Verne Strickland / November 21, 2011

***********

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.

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. 

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]

• 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

If convicted of these charges, Lindh could have received up to three life sentences and 90 additional years in prison. On February 13, 2002, he pleaded not guilty to all 10 charges.^[2

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 (50 U.S.C. § 1705(b), 18 U.S.C. § 2, 31 C.F.R. 545.204, and 31 C.F.R. 545.206a) and carrying an explosive during the commission of a felony (18 U.S.C. § 844(h)(2)).

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.'

USA DOT COM SPECIAL SERIES: Mike Spann -- What he lived for, and what he died for

Mike Spann, Semper Fi

By Verne Strickland  / November 14, 2011

On this website for the past few years, we have reported and commented on heroes and villains, gutter politics, wars, tragedies, personal stories of valor and of treachery, of extraordinary Americans who daily put their lives on the line to prevent our various deadly enemies from snuffing out the flame of freedom. 

But now we encounter a clash of wills, philosophies, and beliefs so totally opposed as to make the eruption of war inevitable, after Islamic radicals drew first blood.

We have never before had the opportunity to report on a story with more gripping personal impact, relevance and drama than this one -- the story of CIA agent and former Marine officer Michael Spann of  Alabama -- the first American to die fighting in the War on Terror in Afghanistan.

This is an epic saga of courage and sacrifice which brings together idealism and bravery, from the quiet and innocence of small town Alabama, to the chaos and dire peril of war in a hostile foreign land.

Though it has the intrigue of a movie script, this is not fiction, but a true-to-life depiction of idealism, danger and betrayal, of commitment to duty on the part of one special American who enters the lair of jihadists in Afghanistan on a quest to pick up the trail of arch-terrorist Osama bin Laden.

At the time of this mission, young Michael Spann was a CIA Special Ops agent who joined the agency to invest all his initiative, skill and bravery in the War on Terror, currently the the greatest threat to freedom in the world.

It was through my friend Ilario Pantano that I was made aware of this story. He directed me to Johnny Spann, Mike's father, who graciously made himself available for lengthy personal talks by phone, detailing this compelling chronicle of a father's search for facts in the death of his beloved son -- a war hero by any measure.

While those interviews with me were doubtless very painful for Mr. Spann, they surfaced intricate personal revelations of his effort to unravel a twisted plot that led finally to a crowded, seething prison in Afghanistan.  He shared facts which he said he has discussed to only a limited degree prior to this.

This has been a deep personal experience for me, and I consider it a privilege to have the opportunity to relate the facts of Michael Spann's personal search for bin Laden, and Johnny Spann's quest for documented evidence about how his son died -- overwhelmed in an intense fire fight at close range with a hoard of captured jihadists who wanted to kill him -- and did.

 

Honorary Marine Guards escort Mike's casket into Arlington National Cemetery on December 10, 2001. 

A full military funeral ensued. The CIA hero died ten years ago -- November 25, 2001

There are many instances in this rawboned narrative revealing the courage of this resilient American family -- a father's refusal to be denied the truth about his son's last moments in a prison compound, later pouring over grainy photos he had recovered of the postmortem of Mike's body at a medical center in Germany, and  the finality of a military funeral with full honors in Arlington. Through it all, grieving father Johnny Spann bore up with dignity and composure.

Johnny Spann's  tortuous journey to the truth is at times quite difficult to absorb, as he tells of examining the lifeless body of his son in a casket, tracking down a film depicting his son minutes before he was killed, and interviewing the men who personally witnessed Mike's death in a uprising by desperate prisoners. To me this amazing American father is no less a hero than the son he mourns.

Havinjg these desperate events related to me by a man who has endured so much to honor his son has rocked me to the core. It surely will have the same effect on you. It will make you feel blessed to realize how our military and defense systems hold the Islamic hoards at bay, keeping us safe and secure. It will also make you proud of those who stand watch, fight our fights and sacrifice life and limb for the sake of freedom.

In addition to recording the heartfelt personal comments shared by Johnny Spann, we consulted dozens of specialized military and intelligence websites which, I feel obligated to say, yielded no classified information while yielding facts which were previously unknown.

This story will be related in several installments to give it adequate space for delivery of key information and documentation. Watch for it in the next few days.This is not foremost a story of loss or defeat It is first of all a story of love and victory. This is the truth about what Mike Spann lived for -- and what he died for.

After following this tumultuous account, you will better understand the price of freedom.

Semper Fidelis.