John Walker Lindh

John Philip Walker Lindh (born February 9, 1981) is an American Taliban member who was captured by United States forces as an enemy combatant during the United States' invasion of Afghanistan in November 2001.

He was detained at Qala-i-Jangi fortress, used as a prison.

He denied participating in the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi, a violent uprising of the Taliban prisoners, stating that he was wounded in the leg and hid in the cellar of the Pink House, in the southern half of the fort.

He was one of the 86 prisoners who survived the uprising, from an estimated 400 prisoners in total.

CIA officer Johnny "Mike" Spann was killed during that uprising.

Frank Lindh said he and Marilyn had been separated since 1997.

In 1997, at the age of 16, Lindh converted to Islam.

He began regularly attending mosques in Mill Valley and later in nearby San Francisco.

A convert to Sunni Islam in California at age 16, Lindh traveled to Yemen in 1998 to study Arabic and stayed there for 10 months.

In 1998, Lindh traveled to Yemen and stayed for about 10 months to learn Arabic so that he could read the Qur'an in its original language.

Although his parents did not divorce until 1999, their marriage was in serious trouble throughout Lindh's adolescence.

His father often left their Marin residence for extended periods to live in San Francisco with a male lover.

He returned to the United States in 1999, living with his family for about eight months.

He later returned in 2000, then went to Afghanistan to aid the Taliban in fighting against the Afghan Northern Alliance.

He received training at Al-Farouq, a training camp associated with al-Qaeda, designated a terrorist organization by the United States and other countries.

While at the camp, he attended a lecture by Osama bin Laden.

After the 9/11 attacks, he remained with the Taliban military forces despite learning that the U.S. had become allied with the Northern Alliance.

Lindh had previously received training with Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, an internationally designated terrorist organization based in Pakistan.

Lindh went by the name Sulayman al-Faris during his time in Afghanistan, but prefers the name Abu Sulayman al-Irlandi today.

In early reports following his capture, when the press learned that he was a US citizen, he was usually referred to by the news media as just "John Walker".

Lindh was born in Washington, D.C., to Marilyn Walker and Frank R. Lindh, as the middle of three children in the family.

He was named "John" after John Lennon, who was murdered two months before Lindh's birth.

He was baptized a Catholic, and grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland.

When he was 10 years old, his family moved to San Anselmo, California.

Lindh suffered from an intestinal disorder as a child.

At age 14, his health improved.

He enrolled at Redwood High School as a freshman.

He then transferred to Tamiscal High School in the Tamalpais Union High School District, an alternative school offering self-directed, individualized study programs.

While there, he studied world culture, including Sunni Islam and the Middle East.

Lindh dropped out of the school and eventually earned an equivalent of a high school diploma by passing the California High School Proficiency Exam at age 16.

As an adolescent, Lindh participated in IRC chatrooms with the IRC nickname Mujahid.

He became a devoted fan of hip-hop music and engaged in extensive discussions on Usenet newsgroups, sometimes pretending to be an African American rapper who would criticize others for "acting black."

Spike Lee's film Malcolm X impressed him deeply and sparked his interest in Islam.

Lindh returned to Yemen in February 2000 and left for Pakistan to study at a madrasa.

While abroad, Lindh exchanged numerous emails with his family.

In one, his father told him about the USS Cole bombing, to which Lindh replied that the American naval destroyers being in the Yemen harbor had been an act of war, and that the bombing was justified.

"This raised my concerns," his father told Newsweek, "but my days of molding him were over."

At the age of 20, Lindh decided to travel to Afghanistan to fight for the Afghan Taliban government forces against Northern Alliance fighters.

Brought to trial in United States federal court in February 2002, Lindh accepted a plea bargain; he pleaded guilty to two charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

He was released on supervision on May 23, 2019, for a three-year period of supervised release.