Lindh on his way to U.S., faces charges
Californian could receive life for conspiracy allegations
By Pauline Jelinek
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two months after his capture in Afghanistan, John Walker Lindh began the journey back to the United States Tuesday to face charges he conspired to kill his countrymen.

A Californian who took up the cause of Islamic radicals, Lindh was airlifted off the Navy assault ship USS Bataan in the Arabian Sea, where he was being held, a defense official said on condition of anonymity.

Lindh made a stop at the U.S. military base in Kandahar, Afghanistan, before continuing on an airplane bound for the U.S. mainland, another U.S. official said on condition of anonymity.

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said Lindh has been turned over to the Department of Justice and will not be sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where other prisoners from the campaign in Afghanistan are being held. “He will go where they want him,” Rumsfeld said.

Lindh was expected to arrive in the Washington area Wednesday.

Rumsfeld said Lindh would be brought into the Northern District of Virginia court system. His comment came during an hour-long news conference he devoted largely to defending U.S. treatment of other prisoners: foreign fighters held in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Naval Base.

“The concern that the Department of Defense has had ... has been to do everything humanely possible to stop terrorists from killing people and to gather as much intelligence information as we can,” he said. “And that is pure, simple self-defense of the United States of America,” he said.

He said repeatedly that the prisoners were being treated humanely and in accordance with international rules.

“No detainee has been harmed. No detainee has been mistreated in any way,” Rumsfeld said of the prisoners, mostly suspected al Qaeda fighters flown to Cuba after being captured in Afghanistan.

“These people are committed terrorists,” he said. “We are keeping them off the street and out of the airlines and out of nuclear power plants and out of ports across this country and across other countries, and it seems to me a perfectly reasonable thing to do.”

Lindh was coming to the United States — not Guantanamo — because he is an American citizen.

A 20-year-old who converted to Islam four years ago, he is alleged to have trained at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan. He was captured in November in the siege of Kunduz and survived a prison uprising near Mazar-e-Sharif.

The conspiracy charge against him can carry a life sentence.

Also Tuesday, the Pentagon said another unmanned Predator spy plane crashed, at least the third U.S. drone lost in the anti-terror campaign started after the Sept. 11 attacks on America.

There was no indication the crash resulted from hostile fire, said Cmdr. Frank Merriman of U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla.

Rumsfeld said in November that two had been lost in bad weather.

The drone can take pictures and listen to enemy communications, flying at 25,000 feet. An entire Predator system, including a ground control station and four aircraft, costs about $25 million.

Predators have seen heavy use in Afghanistan, including by the CIA, which has flown some armed with missiles on their wings to attack Taliban and al Qaeda targets.

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