Frank Lindh, as clue less now as he was before 911.
Lindh's father, Frank, a San Rafael resident, spoke Thursday at the Commonwealth Club of California about the plight of his son, dubbed the "American Taliban," who was captured while fighting for the Taliban in Afghanistan on Nov. 21, 2001.He excoriated the government and media for creating the atmosphere for his son - who turns 25 next month - to be sent to prison.
"This is the story of a decent and honorable young man who embarked on a spiritual quest who became the focus of the grief and anger of the entire nation for an event in which he had no part," Frank Lindh said.
As all good liberals Mr. Lindh blames America, not is son's ignorance of the world as it really is.
At 17, with his parents' blessings, he traveled to Yemen to memorize the Koran and to become an Islamic scholar. He came home when his visa expired, then later returned to Yemen, then Pakistan."It's a wonderful thing for an American kid to go overseas and study, to learn another language, to learn another religion, these are great things," Frank Lindh said. .
The danger of Islamic terror was not a secret when he began his pursuit. When one's philosophical center is post modern relativism value judgments of differing philosophies don't come to play. Learning about new cultures is good, except in a moral vacuum.
In April 2001, John Lindh wrote home saying he wanted to travel into the mountains of Pakistan to get away from the oppressive heat."What he did not tell us was that he was going over the mountain into Afghanistan to volunteer for military service," said Frank Lindh, who is seeking to get his son's sentence commuted.
"But the training camp was run by Osama bin Laden," he said. "Osama bin Laden really had two operations going on. He financed the Afghan army, but he also had a highly secretive terrorist organization."
The younger Lindh saw Osama bin Laden speak twice while he was training in Afghanistan, and met him once, but had no idea that he was involved in terrorism against the United States, Lindh said. .
If this were true then why was Sudan trying to hand over Bin Laden back in 1998? It was clearly understood who was behind the Embassy bombings and the attack on the USS Cole. If Osama's terrorist involvement was a secret it was only a secret to those who choose not to notice.
Then, the attacks hit on Sept. 11, 2001. Bin Laden was identified as the culprit behind the attack and the Taliban was targeted by the United States for harboring the al-Qaida leader."What happened unfortunately for John is that the United States made an abrupt change after the 9/11 attacks," Frank Lindh said. "We switched sides. John was on the ground there when that happened. He certainly didn't go to Afghanistan to do anything against America. He never fought against America. He never fired a gun at an American."
"Before those attacks, John's activities would have been treated with indifference or perhaps curiosity here in the United States. But viewed through the prism of the Sept. 11 attacks, his activity caused this young man to be vilified as a traitor and a terrorist," Lindh said. .
Now the vapid ignorance of this reasoning is remarkable. Could anyone not grasp the significance of the 911 attacks. Of course the government's view changed. Before 911 terrorism was treated as a foreign affair, after it became an issue of homeland security. This is a seismic change in policy not made in a back room. Anyone with even a passing interest in world events understood this. Yet here we still have people that can't bring themselves to condemn anything as evil, except the interests of their own nation.
"I feel very proud of my son. He acted with great integrity throughout this entire ordeal. He's a great kid. He has more integrity and more dignity than any politician or any journalist that I've ever met," he said.
Not a hard accomplishment. Many would agree that prostitutes are higher on the ladder. Forgot to add lawyers to the list of the integrity challenged Mr. Lindh.
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