Prisoner in Afghanistan claims to be an American

Bay Area family reportedly identifies Taliban soldier as son 

SF Chronicle Staff and News Services    Monday, December 3, 2001  

A grimy, light-skinned man claiming to be an American -- and who is apparently from the San Francisco Bay Area -- was among more than 80 Taliban fighters who straggled out of a flooded basement days after their prison rebellion was crushed at an Afghan fort. 

"U.S. military forces in Afghanistan have in their control a man who calls himself a U.S. citizen," Army Lt. Col. Jim Cassella, a Pentagon spokesman, said in Washington, D.C. "He was among the al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners held by the Northern Alliance in Mazar-e-Sharif." 

Cassella said the man was injured and was being given medical assistance by U.S. forces. He could not provide further details, nor confirm whether the man was a U.S. citizen. 

But a divorced couple in Marin County yesterday identified the man as their 20-year-old son, John Phillip Walker Lindh. 

Marilyn Walker of Fairfax and Frank Lindh, a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. attorney who lives in San Rafael, told Newsweek magazine that their son had traveled to Pakistan and was last heard from in April. 

Little is known of the man's Afghan ordeal beyond what he told a Newsweek reporter on Saturday during a 15-minute conversation as he sat with other injured Taliban prisoners in an open-bed truck and waited to be transported to Shebargan's military hospital. The man said he was a Muslim convert at 16, was born in Washington, D.C., and had been fighting alongside the Taliban for the past six months. 

Reports differed as to whether the man uses his mother's surname, Walker, or the assumed name of Abdul Hamid. The man declined to give Newsweek his given name or say where in the United States he had been living.

'SWEET, SHY KID' 

But Marilyn Walker told Newsweek that her son is a "sweet, shy kid" who had been studying the Koran at a religious school in Pakistan's North-West Frontier province until seven months ago. The family moved to Northern California from a Washington suburb in Maryland in 1991, the magazine said in an article posted on Newsweek.com. 

A news photo of her son taken after the prison's capture gave Walker the first indication of his whereabouts since his time in northwest Pakistan. He had reportedly left Pakistan to join the Taliban in Kabul. 

"I last talked with him at the end of April," Walker told Newsweek. "He said he was going to be moving somewhere cooler for the summer." 

A family friend, Bill Jones of San Rafael, said he had rented a room in his house to Frank Lindh three years ago after the couple's divorce. He met their son two years ago when he visited his father in Jones' home for a week. 

"They are good parents. I personally can't figure this out," said Jones. The couple's son is "a sweet, kind, intelligent kid," Jones added. "It seems to me like Patty Hearst; I feel like he was brainwashed." 

Jones said Lindh had watched a TV news report about his son yesterday and cried. He and his wife "were really frightened by this event," said Jones. 

Lindh and Marilyn Walker have a 12-year-old daughter and another older son. Jones said the parents are close with their children and did their best to support their interests. So, when John Walker began exploring Islam, they paid for him to travel abroad to study the religion, said Jones. 

"He was really into this thing, but he was an 18-year-old then, so we just sort of smiled and accepted where he was going. There was no idea at all that this could possibly happen," said Jones. "He's a very spiritual person. He wanted to do good in the world and he was talking about coming back to America to go to medical school so he could go back to these countries to help people." 

Lindh and Walker avoided reporters yesterday evening, and Jones would not say where they were. He said they had decided to contact an attorney before saying anything more about their son. 

As many as 4,000 former Taliban fighters are in custody in Shebargan, pawns waiting to be played in a game of international diplomacy. 

Many are believed to be non-Afghan fighters with links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist organization. The foreigners' presence gives international leverage to Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, the top military commander in northern Afghanistan, who is calling on the United Nations to accept the detainees and try them according to international law. 

The prisoners at Shebargan are the remnants of the Taliban army in the north, which was defeated a week ago in the city of Kunduz. Late Saturday, they were joined by the approximately 86 survivors of the rebellion at Qala-i- Jangy, a different facility.

WOUNDED IN BOTH LEGS

Twenty of them, including the reported American, were sent first to the city military hospital for treatment. The man told Newsweek that he had gunshot wounds in both legs. 

Beyond his given name, the man's conversation with Newsweek left much unknown. He hesitated at first to say whether he supported the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

"That requires a pretty long and complicated explanation. I haven't eaten for two or three days, and my mind is not really in shape to give you a coherent answer," he said. But when pressed, he replied, "Yes, I supported it."

Read about another American who wishes to go to Afghanistan to fight against the Americans