At 12:53 AM 12/10/2001 -0800, Doug wrote: >Tell me, its there any reason to treat this Johnny Walker guy ( the >American fighting with the Taliban) as anything other than a prisoner of >war - a captured foot soldier? I read a report that he could face >charges of treason, murder and conspiracy, but that sounds way out of line >to me. If an American kid had enlisted in the Nazi army, would he have >been charged with treason and murder? How many Confederate soldiers (just >about all of whom were U.S. Americans) were tried for such crimes?
If memory serves, none of the Confederate soldiers were ever tried for treason. Once the war was over, most if not all, swore allegiance to the Union and received amnesty. During WW2, only a few Americans were ever tried for treason, most notably "Tokyo Rose" (a Japanese-American who made propaganda broadcasts to troops in the Pacific); the poet Ezra Pound was charged with treason (he lived in Italy before and during the war and made similar broadcasts), but was found mentally incompetent to stand trial and was committed to a mental hospital. Some Americans found themselves conscripted into one of the Axis' armed forces (either they were studying in or visiting the "old country" when war was declared, and at least under that country's laws, were "citizens"), but since they had little choice in the matter no action was taken against them. Walker (at least on the face of it) had chosen of his own free will to join the Taliban, and so it is quite possible to bring a treason charge against him. However, since treason requires an "overt act" against the United States, and at least two witnesses must testify to said act, I doubt Walker will come to trial for treason. john
