An american who joined the ranks of the Taliban shortly before the 9/11 attacks and was involved in an detention facility uprising that left hundreds dead including a CIA officer is being released from prison.
FoxNews reports that John Walker Lindh, the captured Islamic militant who at age 20 journeyed to Afghanistan to join the Taliban and fought alongside the terrorists in the days after 9/11, was released from a U.S. federal prison in Indiana on Thursday, his lawyer confirmed to the Washington Post — despite lawmakers’ concerns about the “security and safety implications” of freeing an unrepentant terrorist who officials say continues to “openly call for extremist violence.”
Lindh, dubbed the “American Taliban,” had been serving his sentence at the Terre Haute, Indiana facility. He was discharged several years before completing the 20-year prison sentence he received for joining and supporting the Taliban, with officials citing “good behavior” for the early release. The former Islamist fighter and enemy combatant, named “Detainee 001 in the war on terror,” was captured alongside a group of Taliban fighters in 2001.
According to USATODAY he was with the Taliban at the time of the 9/11 attacks and was captured in the U.S.-backed retaliatory raids on Afghanistan.
In his trial in 2002, Lindh pleaded guilty to serving in the Taliban army and carrying weapons but denied taking up arms against the U.S.
“I did not go to fight against America, and I never did,” Lindh told the court. “I have never supported terrorism in any form, and I never will. . . . I made a mistake by joining the Taliban. Had I realized then what I know now, I would never have joined them.”
Despite reports of good behavior there are still reports that he is shows support for various terrorist groups.
