Opinions from around the country

John Walker Lindh left his home, family and teenage innocence behind in America when he went to follow his newfound faith in Islam, and later in al Qaeda. The epitome of the rebellious teen, Walker — actually his parents and his defense team, rather — now is claiming he needs to be put under the custody of his family during his trial. Federal Judge W. Curtis Sewell saw through the fallacies in Walker’s plea to be released when he denied Walker bail Wednesday without even deliberating.

Defenders of Walker are claiming he is nothing more than an incredulous, innocent young man who poses no danger — danger to America or danger of fleeing the country. We have yet to see if Walker truly is a dangerous individual; however, this is what his trial is for. And the prosecution had more than enough significant evidence upon which to indict him and to build a case to prosecute him.

Even if Walker does prove innocent on some accounts (he faces 10 counts of conspiring to kill Americans and aiding terrorists), it is likely he will not emerge from this case unscathed and, hence, has an incentive to flee.

In addition, Walker has expressed his general disdain for America.

“I don’t really want to see America again,” Walker wrote to his mother in an e-mail a year ago.

In another e-mail to his father, he claimed the U.S. government was responsible for the bombing of its own embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and expressed little sympathy for those Americans’ deaths.

Without a doubt, Walker despises America. This in and of itself is enough to deny him bail. Given the opportunity, Walker surely would flee. He may even have connections that would make this easy for him.

The only appropriate time to release Walker would arise out of his acquittal on all accounts, which probably will not happen. In the case of innocence, let Walker go back to Afghanistan, or any other rogue state for that matter. It would be his decision.

But until it is proven that Walker is not dangerous and he did not intentionally harm Americans, he remains behind bars. Walker’s parents were trying to get their accused son released into their custody even though he ran away from home as a teenager.
Their son hates America. Let him hate it behind bars for now.

This editorial comes from the Technician at North Carolina State University.
This column was distributed by U-Wire.

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TCU Daily Skiff © 2002