WASHINGTON — Claiming John Walker Lindh was a soldier, not a terrorist, his attorneys presented new details Friday of his initial weeks in captivity and said the traumatized young prisoner cooperated with the FBI only in the hope of ending mistreatment by U.S. authorities.
The defense team also released letters written during that period to Lindh by his parents in Northern California, who conveyed their love and eagerness to help him and vented frustration over U.S. officials not forwarding their mail.
The one-way correspondence covers days of uncertainty, and it was not until January that his mother, Marilyn Walker, learned he was still alive.
"You have been in my heart and prayers all these many months of not knowing where you were," she wrote. "Finding you alive is the answer to all of those prayers."
Lindh's arrest in late November sparked outrage in the United States, fueled by video images of a ragged, bearded traitor derided as the American Talib. He eventually was brought to the Washington area and indicted by a federal grand jury as a terrorist. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft branded him "an active, knowing participant" in the war against America. Lindh will stand trial in August and faces life in prison if convicted.
Now his San Francisco legal team is working to soften his image and to blame the government for misrepresenting his actions in Central Asia. The court filing Friday was the second in a week in which Lindh's lawyers have begun to lay out their defense.
Government prosecutors declined to comment on Friday's discovery motions but are scheduled to respond in court March 29.
Earlier, the government claimed Lindh, 21, was a terrorist who met Osama bin Laden and was trained at the Al Farouk camp in Afghanistan. But his lawyers insist he was there merely to learn how to be a soldier in the Taliban army and to fight against the Northern Alliance there.
That central difference promises to be the key battleground in the trial: whether Lindh truly sought to harm the United States.
To bolster their view, defense lawyers hope to gain access to statements Lindh made to the FBI after his capture and to keep them out of the trial on the grounds that he gave them only after harsh treatment by U.S. authorities.
The defense said in court papers Friday that Lindh was "among Taliban troops" who surrendered to the Northern Alliance on Nov. 24 near Mazar-i-Sharif. When some of the captives exploded grenades and attempted to escape, Lindh was wounded by shrapnel and a bullet.
