American Taliban won't receive death penalty

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration will charge American Taliban member John Walker Lindh with conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens in Afghanistan and will ask for life imprisonment rather than the death penalty, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Tuesday. \nLindh will be charged in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., rather than in by military tribunal. Other charges against him will include providing support to terrorist organizations and engaging in prohibited transactions with the Taliban, Ashcroft said. \nThe attorney general said while the U.S. continues to seek justice against foreigners responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, "we cannot overlook attacks on America when they come from U.S. citizens." \nWhite House spokesman Ari Fleischer said President Bush "is supportive of the process put in place. He is confident that the process will end in justice." \nThe charges were recommended to Bush by the National Security Council, which mediated advice from the Justice Department, the Pentagon and the State Department. \n"Youth is not absolution for treachery," Ashcroft told reporters. "Misdirected Americans cannot receive direction in murderous ideology." \nLindh is 20. \nHe was captured in November fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan. He was taken into custody by U.S. forces after a prison uprising at a fortress in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif. Lindh has since been held on the amphibious attack ship USS Bataan in the Arabian Sea. \nA baptized Roman Catholic who converted to Islam at 16, Lindh sent a letter to his parents in December saying he was safe and regretted not contacting them sooner. He apparently dictated the letter, dated Dec. 3, to an International Red Cross volunteer. \nAshcroft said the charges were based for the most part on Lindh's own statements to FBI investigators. \nHe said Lindh told agents that he joined a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan last May and spent seven months there. Osama bin Laden visited the camp several times and met Lindh on one occasion, Lindh said. \nIn the criminal complaint, the government said Lindh was interviewed by the FBI Dec. 9 and 10 and waived his rights to a lawyer. He had joined the military training camp in May 2001, it said, and was told by al Qaeda people to pretend that he was Irish and not to admit to anyone that he was American. \nThe complaint also said Lindh learned in early June that bin Laden had sent people to the U.S. to carry out suicide operations and that Lindh remained at the camp for the seven-week duration after he learned about the plan to carry out an attack. \nOn one occasion, the complaint said, Walker and four other trainees met with bin Laden for about five minutes, during which time bin Laden thanked them for helping. \nThe complaint said Walker heard about the U.S. attacks Sept. 11 or 12 on the radio and understood bin Laden had ordered them and that additional attacks would follow.