Word: lindh
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...already seen plenty of it as a 19-year-old in Afghanistan, where he learned to fight in 1993; and later during his stints as soldier and gunrunner in Kosovo and the Caucasus?a career path that might have made the Hawaiian native an early John Walker Lindh. Instead, he turned his back on holy war and started working in counterterrorism for Uncle Sam, a tale told in My Jihad, an often horrifying combination of frank simplicity and cold-blooded violence...
...idea to Michael Chertoff, the Assistant Attorney General in charge of prosecutions, who brought the matter to his boss, John Ashcroft. With the Attorney General's approval, the prosecutors discussed a possible deal with officials at the Pentagon, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, among the most vocal of Lindh's early critics. Rumsfeld agreed to the idea of a plea. Next, a Justice Department lawyer spoke to White House counsel Al Gonzalez, who briefed President Bush. But while the top officials of the U.S. government were ready to strike a deal, Lindh was not. Brosnahan says his client wanted assurances...
Pentagon officials, following Rumsfeld's orders, insisted that Lindh retract his claim of being mistreated by the military. Brosnahan says his client never felt he was intentionally abused by guards, though several took snapshots of one another next to his bound form. Defense lawyers wanted the charges alleging ties to al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups dropped. Says Brosnahan: "We were not going to sign anything that he was a terrorist...
...would take 57 hours of back-and-forth phone calls and faxes between defense lawyers and prosecutors, but they hammered out the details by 1:30 a.m. on July 15. Amid the contentious negotiations, his lawyers say, Lindh seemed free of worry. During talks with Hassan in the jail each week, Lindh seemed to have accepted his destiny. "No one can ever hurt me," Lindh recently told him, quoting a Muslim scholar. "If they imprison me, I can devote my time to worship. If they exile me, that is an opportunity to see new lands of God. If they kill...
...letters to his mentor Ebrahim Nana, who runs the Mill Valley, Calif., mosque where Lindh converted to Islam, Lindh has written of his dreams about building Islamic schools so American children would not have to go abroad to study. For now, he will recite a special prison prayer Nana has given him: "Our Lord, take us out of this town whose people are oppressors and raise for us from yourself one who will protect us." Says Nana: "Allah has kept him alive for a purpose...