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U.S. Taliban Fighter Under 24-Hour Guard at U.S. Military Camp in Afghanistan
CAMP RHINO, Afghanistan, Dec 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - John Walker Lindh, an American captured while fighting alongside the Taliban, is being kept under 24-hour guard at a U.S. military base in southern Afghanistan until Washington decides his fate, officers said Sunday.
Lindh, 20, also known as Abdul Hamid, was wounded in a prison revolt in northern Afghanistan in which hundreds of Taliban fighters and a CIA agent died last month, was in good health and being well treated at the desert base, they said.
Meanwhile, U.S. Marines have begun building a "detention facility" at the base known as Camp Rhino in anticipation that more Taliban or al-Qaeda fighters will be captured, said Captain Stewart Upton, a Marine spokesman.
Heavy construction vehicles kicking up dust could be seen clearing an area for the new facility. Upton said that Lindh, who is being kept at a secret location here, is so far the only prisoner at the base.
U.S. military authorities have described Lindh as a "battlefield detainee" while they consider classifying him an "enemy prisoner of war (EPW)," or an "illegal combatant" under the terms of the "war on terrorism", Upton said.
The United States launched its war in Afghanistan on October 7 after the Taliban refused to hand over alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, blamed for the deadly September 11 attacks in the United States.
A Marine legal expert said that the case was full of gray areas with no obvious precedents and that higher authorities in Washington would decide where he would go next.
"We hope he'll be moved as quickly as possible. This is a way station," the expert said on condition of anonymity.
As a "battlefield detainee," Upton said, Lindh enjoys "all the rights of an EPW" under the Geneva Convention - which means he is being clothed, fed and sheltered here while under 24-hour watch. Upton turned down requests by journalists to see the prisoner or interview him.
"We cannot parade or showboat [him] under the Geneva Convention," he said.
The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) is the body authorized to check on his welfare and help with mail, telephone and other contacts with the outside world.
Upton said he was not aware whether there were any U.S. contacts yet with the Red Cross on Lindh.
The Marines declined to say when Lindh arrived at this base south of the city of Kandahar, the former Taliban stronghold which the militia surrendered Friday to U.S.-allied Afghan opposition forces.
Lindh was handed over to U.S. forces in northern Afghanistan after emerging bedraggled and wounded in the leg on December 1 from a week of fierce fighting between Taliban prisoners and Northern Alliance forces at a prison fortress near the city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
He was one of around 80 Taliban fighters who survived a week without food in the prison after hundreds of Taliban prisoners had been killed by combined U.S. and Northern Alliance force, under circumstances deemed questionable by human rights groups calling for an inquiry into the revolt.
A 32-year-old CIA officer, Johnny "Mike" Spann, also died in the revolt. The first confirmed U.S. combat death in Afghanistan, Spann had been filmed prior to the attack interviewing an uncooperative Lindh, according to U.S. media accounts.
Press reports indicate that many Americans consider him a traitor, however, the U.S. government has filed no formal treason charges against him yet.
Several Marines said Lindh should be severely punished for turning against his country when journalists informed them that an American who had fought with the Taliban was being detained here.
"He's a complete traitor," said Sergeant Erik Knox, 37, of Chicago. "He needs his head bashed in, in front of you [journalists]."
The young man's parents, Marilyn Walker and Frank Lindh, who are divorced, said through a lawyer in San Francisco that they were concerned for their son's health and wanted to visit him.
When asked about his health, Upton said, "I would classify it as good."
He was being given food, water and shelter, and medical care was also available if needed.
Lindh's parents say their son must have been brainwashed.
Lindh told Newsweek magazine he converted to Islam at 16. In the next two years, he dropped out of school and traveled to Yemen at 18 to learn Arabic, moving on to Pakistan to study at a
madrassa, or Islamic school.
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