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Giuliani Calls for Death Penalty for Walker
WASHINGTON, Dec 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Outgoing New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said Sunday he believed the death penalty should be considered for American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh in order to deter others from following his example, news agencies reported.
"I don't know all the facts of the case, but I certainly think serious consideration should be given to the maximum penalty that the law allows," Giuliani said, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"When you commit treason against the United States of America, particularly at a time when the United States of America is in peril of attack and further attack, the death penalty is an appropriate remedy to consider," the mayor added. "It's a very effective deterrent against other people doing the same thing."
Twenty-year-old Lindh converted to Islam at the age of 16 and joined the ranks of the Taliban six months ago.
Lindh was seized December 1 in Afghanistan after a bloody prison uprising in Qala-i-Jongi prison in Mazar-e-Sharif that took the life of CIA agent Johnny "Mike" Span, and was among the surviving Taliban taken prisoner by U.S.-allied Afghan forces. At that time, he gave his name as Abdul Hamid. He has since acknowledged that he is a U.S. citizen who was fighting for the Taliban.
U.S. officials have not decided what to do with Lindh, who was taken in U.S. custody on Saturday aboard the amphibious assault ship U.S.S. Peleliu in the Arabian Sea, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said.
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney has said Lindh would probably be turned over to civilian authorities to face trial, without commenting on possible charges.
Many British Muslims, around 200, also went to Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban. Three British Muslims were reported killed in Afghanistan late last month.
There has been a threat by British authorities to prosecute any returning British Muslims on a range of charges from terrorism to treason, which carries a life sentence.
On November 24, London Mayor Ken Livingstone opposed any trials. "We've got to accept that these people went off because of a deep sense of injustice about what's happening in Israel and the West Bank," Livingstone said in an interview published in the
London Daily Telegraph. "Of course, I disagree with them, but there are only about a dozen of them."
He said the West should understand that they, and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, fed off a real sense of injustice in the Middle East.
"You could destroy al-Qaeda and chop up bin Laden into little bits, but unless you resolve that festering sore, there'll be another terrorist along next year," warned Livingstone.
"The terrorists feed off a genuine injustice. You're not going to have young Muslims giving their life for some call for the restoration of the caliphate, but they will give their life because they see their Palestinian brothers being shot."
Elsewhere, last week, Australian officials said they captured a 26-year-old Australian fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The Muslim man, from Adelaide in South Australia, was seized by the Northern Alliance.
Attorney-General Daryl Williams said Canberra had been advised the man was in good health, but would not disclose where he was being detained and said his identity was being withheld to protect his family.
He said there was a possibility of charges against the man under Australian law, but declined to canvass what they might be, reported AFP.
The Australian had also fought with Muslim forces in the former Yugoslavia before traveling in November 1999 to Pakistan, where officials say he trained with Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group active in the liberation of Kashmir. He went to Afghanistan the following year.
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