ISLAMABAD – A Pakistani religious teacher who spent six months with”American Taliban” John Walker Lindh has hailed his release, describing himas a “good person” who became upset over the situation in Afghanistan,Kashmir and Palestine.
Lindh symbolised betrayal for the US when he was captured, bearded anddishevelled, while fighting for the Taliban in the Afghan city ofMazar-i-Sharif in 2001.
His release from prison on Thursday — three years before the end of his20-year sentence — has re-awakened memories of the September 11 attacksand underscored the tragedy of the US invasion of Afghanistan, wherecivilians are paying a deadly price as the war grinds on.
President Donald Trump said he was upset about the release, but governmentlawyers had told him there was no legal way to keep him in prison.
“We’ll be watching him and watching him closely,” Trump told reporters.
But Mohammad Iltimas, who taught Lindh for six months at a Muslim schoolnear the Afghan border in Pakistan’s northwest, said he was happy to hearof the decision to release him.
“He was such a pure person, such a positive-thinking man,” Iltimas told AFP.
Iltimas said Lindh came to his school — the Madrassa Arabia Hussania,outside the city of Bannu — in December 2000, and stayed until May orApril of the next year.
“He wanted to memorise the Koran,” he said, describing how Lindh couldoften be seen listening to Koranic verses on a tape recorder or learningPashto.
“He was such a good student, pious and focused on his studies, I never sawhim sitting idle. He was not interested in sports. He was such a seriousand committed person to his cause.”
Lindh was “upset over the situation in Afghanistan, Kashmir and Palestine”,said Iltimas.
At the time, the Taliban regime which controlled most of Afghanistan wasengaged in a bloody fight with the rebellious Northern Alliance.
Soon the madrassa student enlisted in the Taliban’s ranks.
After the United States intervened in Afghanistan following the September11, 2001 attacks, Lindh was one of hundreds of Taliban fighters captured byNorthern Alliance forces on November 25.
He revealed his American identity to two CIA officers in the city ofMazar-i-Sharif.
One of them, Johnny Micheal Spann, was killed in a prisoner revolt hoursafter he interrogated Lindh, making him the first American killed inpost-9/11 conflict in Afghanistan.
– ‘Too brave or too stupid’ –
Mazar residents who remembered Lindh described to AFP their shock onhearing that an American had been captured fighting for the Islamistmilitants.
“People were asking how is that possible,” recalled 40-year-old residentKhayber Ibrahimi.
“I think he must have been too brave or too stupid to have gone with theTaliban,” he told AFP.
In July 2002 plea deal, Lindh admitted charges of illegally aiding theTaliban and carrying weapons and explosives.
By most accounts, he clung firmly to his faith throughout his imprisonment.
An internal 2017 report from the US National Counterterrorism Center,obtained by the Foreign Policy website, said that Lindh “continued toadvocate for global jihad and to write and translate violent extremisttexts”.
The claim was not supported by public evidence.
Iltimas told AFP that Lindh had written him from prison, although AFP wasunable to immediately verify the claim.
When Lindh left for Afghanistan, Iltimas said, he left some of hispossessions behind at the madrassa, claiming he would return.
“I still have that stuff — his briefcase, books, shoes, clothes,notebooks,” Iltimas told AFP.
“People at the time used to ask me if I had changed him into a jihadi,” hesaid.
“I always replied to them that I turned him to education, and changed himas a scholar.”
Now 38, Lindh will settle in Virginia under strict probation terms thatlimit his ability to go online or contact any other Islamists.
In Afghanistan, where he was captured, the Taliban are once againresurgent, Afghan civilians desperate for peace, and the US eager to escapewhat has become the longest war in its history. -APP/AFP