American taliban pardon?

[TheMuffinKing]

American Taliban

Dec 17, 2:48 PM EST

Parents of 'American Taliban' ask Bush to free him
AP Photo
AP Photo/Paul Sakuma
Advertisement
Buy AP Photo Reprints

Your Questions Answered
Ask AP: Petroleum products, the Cuba trade embargo

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The parents of American-born Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh are asking President George W. Bush to set their son free before Bush leaves office next month.

Lindh was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty in 2002 to serving in the Taliban army, which violated U.S. economic sanctions against Afghanistan at that time.

At a news conference in San Francisco Wednesday, Lindh's mother, Marilyn Walker, asked the president to show mercy during the Christmas season by commuting her son's sentence.

Lindh initially asked for a commutation in 2004 and his lawyers have renewed the request each year.

The U.S. Department of Justice has never acted on the petition and a spokeswoman didn't immediately return a telephone call.

© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our

Posted without comment, for now.

[Ender]

Not going to happen.

[Knife]

The other guy, Podesda?.. would deserve a pardon more than Walker. Walker got what he deserved.

[Samuel]

The US doesn't look kindly upon treason- he isn't going free.

[Sarevok]

Can't he just be exiled instead of condemned to suffer to make some patriotic point ?

If he is one of "them" treat him same as them. I don't think all Taliban in custody is going to be held in jail for decades. They would be set free one day like other former enemy combatants who fought Americans in a war. So cant American Taliban simply go join the people he wanted to be once wars over ? Why should he be left in a cell because he happened to be born in American borders ? It's not like he had any choice in his place of birth.

[Lonestar]

Can't he just be exiled instead of condemned to suffer to make some patriotic point ?

Because of the whole "Treason" thing.

[TheMuffinKing]

Can't he just be exiled instead of condemned to suffer to make some patriotic point ?

If he is one of "them" treat him same as them. I don't think all Taliban in custody is going to be held in jail for decades. They would be set free one day like other former enemy combatants who fought Americans in a war. So cant American Taliban simply go join the people he wanted to be once wars over ? Why should he be left in a cell because he happened to be born in American borders ? It's not like he had any choice in his place of birth.

It's more than that. He is an American citizen, fighting against the lawful American government. He committed treason and deserved little more than two to the head and burial in a ditch. His parents are sniveling scoundrels, caught up in some fantasy where their son is free of guilt, they need to shut the fuck up and write their crotch turd off as a loss.

[Gandalf]

Can't he just be exiled instead of condemned to suffer to make some patriotic point ?

Presumably if he's merely exiled he can get up to his old tricks again.

Why they can't just put him in gaol eludes me.

[Knife]

Can't he just be exiled instead of condemned to suffer to make some patriotic point ?

If there was truely a way to exile people any more I'd go for it, perhaps a deserted island, hmmm....any way letting him go back to Afganastan would either just let him go back to what he was doing, or get him killed as various americans came gunning for him.

If he is one of "them" treat him same as them.

He was one of us, that turned into one of them. That's the whole reason he's in jail.

I don't think all Taliban in custody is going to be held in jail for decades. They would be set free one day like other former enemy combatants who fought Americans in a war. So cant American Taliban simply go join the people he wanted to be once wars over ? Why should he be left in a cell because he happened to be born in American borders ? It's not like he had any choice in his place of birth.

He'll be free one day. While he should have been put in life for treason, they didn't go for the whole kit and kaboddle and he only got twenty years, rather light for treason huh?

[Sarevok]

It's not like Mr American Taliban man is going to kill more people than much more well trained and equipped islamists roaming out there or ones who will be freed one day. I can understand keeping him locked up is satisfying for patriotic people but it serves no useful value. Why single him out and punish him out of some emotional spite ?

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

It's not like Mr American Taliban man is going to kill more people than much more well trained and equipped islamists roaming out there or ones who will be freed one day. I can understand keeping him locked up is satisfying for patriotic people but it serves no useful value. Why single him out and punish him out of some emotional spite ?

He committed treason. That's enough to warrant some form of deterrent punishment. In war time, he'd be shot.

This argument is akin to saying, "Why have laws?"

[Knife]

It's not like Mr American Taliban man is going to kill more people than much more well trained and equipped islamists roaming out there or ones who will be freed one day.

How can you possibly make such a prediction?

I can understand keeping him locked up is satisfying for patriotic people but it serves no useful value. Why single him out and punish him out of some emotional spite ?

Why do you assume 'betrayal' doesn't need to be punished? You can play up the 'patriotic spite' angle all you want, but as it turned out, Mr. Walker betrayed HIS country and culture. The 'patriotic' people didn't just hunt him down and punish him for arbitrary reasons, he betrayed his society. Why shouldn't he be punished?

[Bilbo]

Can't he just be exiled instead of condemned to suffer to make some patriotic point ?

If he is one of "them" treat him same as them. I don't think all Taliban in custody is going to be held in jail for decades. They would be set free one day like other former enemy combatants who fought Americans in a war. So cant American Taliban simply go join the people he wanted to be once wars over ? Why should he be left in a cell because he happened to be born in American borders ? It's not like he had any choice in his place of birth.

He is an American citizen so even if someone wanted to exile him where would he go? The legal government of Afghanistan would not take him. This isnt the Middle Ages where you can kick someone out of your kingdom out into the unclaimed wilderness.

That is the problem with most of the terrorists held at Gitmo. If you close the place then you have to bring them into the USA to serve time in prison. If they ever get out where do you send them? No countries government is going to want them.

[Rogue 9]

Can't he just be exiled instead of condemned to suffer to make some patriotic point ?

Presumably if he's merely exiled he can get up to his old tricks again.

Why they can't just put him in gaol eludes me.

Erm... He is in jail. Not too far from where I'm sitting, actually; they're keeping him in medium security at the prison in Terre Haute, IN.

[NomAnor15]

It's more than that. He is an American citizen, fighting against the lawful American government. He committed treason and deserved little more than two to the head and burial in a ditch. His parents are sniveling scoundrels, caught up in some fantasy where their son is free of guilt, they need to shut the fuck up and write their crotch turd off as a loss.

While I agree with you in this case, I think the blanket statement about being an American citizen fighting the American government requires a little qualification. It should be acknowledged that at some point it is acceptable to fight against a lawful government (such as the case of the American revolution), although that point was clearly not reached here.

If this is too far off-topic, I apologize. I just felt that it was necessary to point out.

[Rogue 9]

The US doesn't look kindly upon treason- he isn't going free.

The U.S. actually has a long tradition of being more merciful to traitors than most countries, starting with Washington's pardons for the Whiskey Rebellion. He should be glad he only got twenty years.

[TheMuffinKing]

It's more than that. He is an American citizen, fighting against the lawful American government. He committed treason and deserved little more than two to the head and burial in a ditch. His parents are sniveling scoundrels, caught up in some fantasy where their son is free of guilt, they need to shut the fuck up and write their crotch turd off as a loss.

While I agree with you in this case, I think the blanket statement about being an American citizen fighting the American government requires a little qualification. It should be acknowledged that at some point it is acceptable to fight against a lawful government (such as the case of the American revolution), although that point was clearly not reached here.

If this is too far off-topic, I apologize. I just felt that it was necessary to point out.

Thank you for pointing that out, I was suffering from a momentarily stunted vocabulary, and couldn't properly verbalize the correct idea.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Also as far as I know he didn't actually get involved with any attacks on the USA until after the USA had invaded afganistan, so technically he's not a traitor so much as a mercinary/partisan whose employers later became embroiled against his native nation.

And it appears that the USA is much more tolerant of mercs then they are of partisans....

I mean Blackwater can traffic in human cargo, engage US Troops and commit warcrimes and we do nothing.

[Ender]

Also as far as I know he didn't actually get involved with any attacks on the USA until after the USA had invaded afganistan, so technically he's not a traitor so much as a mercinary/partisan whose employers later became embroiled against his native nation.

And it appears that the USA is much more tolerant of mercs then they are of partisans....

I mean Blackwater can traffic in human cargo, engage US Troops and commit warcrimes and we do nothing.

No. Attempts at muddying the issue and moral equivalence aside, he most certainly committed treason and Blackwater has not. Treason is a capital crime, and because of its seriousness the only crime defined in the constitution.

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.

He is guilty of not one, not two, but all three of these. He took part in the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi (levied war against America), he was part of AL-Queda (adhered to our enemies), and he helped provide materials and support to their organization (aid and comfort). This guy absolutely committed treason and this trying to handwave that away by saying Blackwater is just is bad is absolute bullshit.

[Wicked Pilot]

There are plenty of people still in Gitmo who've endured much worse over much less.

[Gandalf]

Erm... He is in jail. Not too far from where I'm sitting, actually; they're keeping him in medium security at the prison in Terre Haute, IN.

Right, mea culpa. My statement was poorly aimed at the guy above me who spouted the usual "two to the head" statement that pops up at these times. For some reason my mind fused that with the article.

[The Yosemite Bear]

There are plenty of people still in Gitmo who've endured much worse over much less.

Well the FBI stated that about 60% of those in Gitmo aren't even guilty of anything....

[Rogue 9]

Treason is a capital crime, and because of its seriousness the only crime defined in the constitution.

Not really relevant to the thread, but this isn't quite correct. Treason is defined by the Constitution to make sure that it couldn't become the crime of choice to just charge people with when you want them to go away; the Crown of England had a nasty habit of just throwing people in the Tower of London on vague treason charges without defining what they did. So I suppose in a way it was the terrorism charge of it's day.

That said, treason is stringently defined in the Constitution for that reason, and yes, he committed every single act that qualifies. He can rot.