John Walker Lindh - Capture and Interrogation

Capture and Interrogation

Lindh was captured on November 25, 2001, by Afghan Northern Alliance forces after his Al-Qaeda foreign fighters unit surrendered at Kunduz after retreating from Takar. He and other fighters were questioned by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officers Johnny "Mike" Spann and Dave "Dawson" Tyson at General Dostum's military garrison, Qala-i-Jangi, near Mazār-e Sharīf. As shown on British Channel 4 news, Spann asks Lindh, "Are you a member of the IRA?" He was asked this question because, when questioned by Spann, an Iraqi in the group identified Lindh as an English speaker. Lindh had been told to say he was "Irish" in order to avoid problems. Moments later, around 11 am, the makeshift prison was the scene of a violent Taliban uprising, known as the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi, in which Spann was killed along with hundreds of foreign fighters. According to other captives interviewed by Robert Young Pelton for CNN, Lindh was fully aware of the planned uprising, yet remained silent and did not cooperate with the Americans.

Sometime during the initial uprising Lindh was shot in the right upper thigh and found refuge in a basement, hiding with a group of Saudi, Uzbek, and Pakistani detainees. The basement was bombarded with repeated RPG and grenade attacks, as well as fuel being poured into the basement and set alight. He was found seven days later on December 2, 2001, when Northern Alliance forces diverted an irrigation stream into the middle of the camp in an attempt to flush the remaining prisoners out of their underground shelters, drowning many in the process. Lindh and about 80 survivors from the original 300 were forced out of hiding and recaptured, with the Northern Alliance captors then tightly binding Lindh's elbows behind his back.

Shortly after his recapture, Lindh was noticed and interviewed by Pelton, who was working as an embedded journalist and stringer for CNN. Lindh initially gave his name as "Abd-al-Hamid" but later gave his birth name. Pelton brought a medic and food for Lindh and interviewed him about how he got there. While under the influence of morphine, Lindh stated that he was a member of al-Ansar, a group of Arabic-speaking fighters financed by Osama bin Laden. Lindh said that the prison uprising was sparked by some of the prisoner guards smuggling grenades into the basement, "This is against what we had agreed upon with the Northern Alliance, and this is against Islam. It is a major sin to break a contract, especially in military situations". A US Army Special Forces operator, fresh from three weeks of combat, then gave up his bed so that the wounded Lindh could sleep there. Repeatedly Pelton asked Lindh if he wanted to call his parents or have Pelton do so, but Lindh declined. Pelton knew Lindh was receiving his first medical treatment since being shot in the leg more than a week prior and had been given morphine by a medic prior to Pelton's interview. Lindh's parents maintain that Pelton acquired footage that was prejudicial and manipulative, and that Pelton contributed to the poor image of their son by sharing the footage with the world community without context.

Upon his capture, Lindh was given basic first aid and then questioned for a week at Mazār-e Sharīf, before being taken to Camp Rhino on December 7, 2001, the bullet still within his thigh. When Lindh arrived at Camp Rhino he was stripped and he was restrained to a stretcher, blindfolded and placed in a metal shipping container, which was procedure for dealing with a potentially dangerous detainee associated with a terrorist organization. While bound to the stretcher his picture was taken by American military personnel. At Camp Rhino he was given oxycodone/paracetamol for pain and Valium.

On December 8 and 9 he was interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was held at Camp Rhino until he was transferred to the USS Peleliu on December 14, 2001 with other wounded detainees, where his wound was operated on and he received further care.

He was interrogated before the operation on December 14. While on the Peleliu, he signed confession documents while he was held by the United States Marine Corps and informed his interrogators that he was not merely Taliban but al-Qaeda, though his father later asserted he was not involved in, and unaware of, al-Qaeda. On December 31, 2001, he was transferred to the USS Bataan, where he was held until January 22, 2002, when he was flown off the Bataan to begin the journey back to the United States to face criminal charges. While on the USS Bataan, Attorney General John Ashcroft, on January 16, 2002, announced that Lindh would be tried in the United States.

In 2002, former president George H. W. Bush referred to Lindh as "some misguided Marin County hot-tubber". The comment provoked a minor furor and prompted a retraction of the statement by Bush.

His attorney claimed to the press that he asked for a lawyer repeatedly before being interviewed but he did not get one, and that "highly coercive" prison conditions forced Lindh to waive his right to remain silent. Although the FBI asked Jesselyn Radack, a Justice Department ethics advisor, whether Lindh could be questioned without a lawyer present, her advice that this should not be done was not followed.