John Walker Lindh, 2002 News

20, American Taliban soldier, reached a deal with U.S. prosecutors in July in which he avoided a life sentence by pleading guilty to serving in the Taliban's army. In exchange, the government dropped the charge that he conspired to kill U.S. citizens. Lindh was taken into custody in Nov. 2001, after a Taliban uprising at a prison compound in Mazar-e-Sharif. The U.S.'s first casualty, CIA officer Johnny Mike Spann, was killed during the revolt. Born in California's Marin County, Lindh traveled to Yemen and Pakistan to study Islam and Arabic, joined the Taliban, and trained at al-Qaeda terrorist camps in Afghanistan.


2002 People in the News