Lindh's Goal Was Violence, U.S. Says

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — John Walker Lindh joined the Taliban to commit violence rather than to assert his freedom of expression, the government argued Wednesday in opposing an effort to dismiss his indictment.

The government said joining the Taliban militia was not like joining a political party, and argued the U.S.-born Lindh had no "combat immunity" from criminal prosecution that is granted enemy soldiers fighting for a lawful army.

Lindh's lawyers had portrayed him as an American who asserted his constitutional rights when he decided to fight for Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers. They asked U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III to dismiss the indictment that charges Lindh with conspiring to murder Americans, among other things.