Word: lindh
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This is what the government says Lindh told an FBI agent in interviews on Dec. 9 and Dec. 10, interviews that will provide the bulk of the prosecution's case: after converting to Islam in the late '90s, Lindh traveled to Pakistan to study the religion and learn Arabic. By last June, he had become so passionate about radical Islam that he went to Afghanistan to join the Taliban. Soon he was training at a camp run by al-Qaeda, a group Lindh knew to be "against America...
...quite a summer camp. According to the FBI, young master Lindh took courses in rocket-propelled grenades and battlefield combat. He even allegedly met Osama bin Laden. But when one of bin Laden's lieutenants asked Lindh if he wanted to leave Afghanistan and conduct operations against the U.S., Lindh declined, preferring the front lines of the Taliban's war with the Northern Alliance. A few weeks later, Lindh heard about the events of Sept. 11 on the radio. "According to [Lindh]," an FBI affidavit says, "it was his and his comrades' understanding at the time that bin Laden...
...surprisingly, Brosnahan has a different story, one with this central, oft-repeated theme: Lindh never harmed any American. Brosnahan offers few specifics about what Lindh actually did in Afghanistan. But he says the comments from Lindh's revealing December sessions with the FBI must be ruled inadmissible, since Lindh had asked for a lawyer more than a week before but never got one. Instead the U.S. kept him floating around the Arabian Sea, where the selection of attorneys is quite limited. "Our government is playing with dynamite," Brosnahan told TIME. "[My client] has a right to counsel under the Geneva...
...short, Brosnahan and the prosecutors appear to be digging in. But both sides have their weaknesses. The most glaring for the prosecution is that it didn't have enough goods on Lindh to charge him with treason. Instead Lindh is charged with conspiring to kill Americans outside the U.S. and with providing aid to terrorist groups. The government has not revealed evidence to refute Brosnahan's claim that his client never actually hurt Americans. Even the FBI affidavit notes that Lindh declined the al-Qaeda offer to work against...
...other major prosecution problem is that Brosnahan can argue that Lindh was in such bad shape during the interrogations--he had been shot, appeared malnourished, and may have been doped on morphine--that the poor kid thought he was talking to Big Bird. On Friday MSNBC began running a videotape of Lindh that was apparently filmed on Dec. 14. Even then--four days after his FBI interview--he had chills and could barely keep his eyes open...