At 11:34 AM 12/11/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>I'm not sure you're answering my question. Did you, yourself, know prior >to >Sept. 11th, that support of the Taliban was also support of Al Qaeda and >that AQ was responsible for those acts of terrorism? It's not as if much >of >our news media was covering the Taliban. And if you, yourself, knew this, >do you also think that Walker also undoubtedly did? I have a very hard >time >believing that more than a very small number of people would have known. > >For myself, I don't think I had even heard of Al Queda, couldn't have come >up with bin Laden's name, though I'm sure I saw news reports, and didn't >know much about what was going on in Afghanistan. Sadly. (And still have >trouble spelling some of these names...) > >Nick > >I think you're missing the point, Nick. He wasn't just a Taliban supporter >- although I should point out that _everyone_ in Afghanistan knew that Bin >Laden was closely linked to the Taliban, as he was very much a public >figure. In fact, Bin Laden's official position was Inspector General of >the Taliban Army. I certainly knew that supporting the Taliban was >supporting Al Qaeda before the attacks (although I was not aware of the >extent to which that was the case until after 9/11) and, from reading the >accounts of people in Afghanistan, that seems to have been common knowledge >within the country, although not within the general populace of the United >States. Bin Laden and Mullah Omar were, for example, widely known to be >close personal friends. > >All of that, however, is immaterial. Walker apparently trained in an Al >Qaeda training camp. He was a member of Al Qaeda, not just a supporter of >the Taliban, to the extent that those things are distinguishable. He >apparently fought as an Al Qaeda member in Kashmir, or at least that's what >I've read. He was clearly an active member of an armed group whose >explicit purpose was the destruction of the United States of America. It >is, from what we know of the camps, impossible to go through them _without_ >learning this fact. Certainly, anyone who knew enough about Al Qaeda to >join them knew enough about them to know that they were attacking the >United States. He has publicly stated his support for the bombings of the >World Trade Center and the USS Cole - both Al Qaeda operations carried out >while he was a member. So he seems clearly to meet the legal standard for >treason. > >It is, however, possible that he cannot be tried for treason. By fighting >as a member of armed forces opposed to the United States, he may have >forfeited his citizenship, and only citizens can be tried for treason. >Since Al Qaeda is not the armed forces of a state, however (again, they are >illegal combatants under the laws of war, not soldiers), it is possible >that this does not apply to him, and he remains a US citizen. If he _is_ a >citizen, then he should be tried for treason in a civilian court. If he is >_not_ a citizen, then he should face a military tribunal that charges him >for any war crimes that he might have committed. If it is true that he >fought in Kashmir and he is not a citizen, I'm sure that the Indians would >be happy to deal with him for us if we are averse to handling the >situation. My own reading of the case - and I'm still in the midst of >reading up on treason law, so this is a fairly unformed opinion - is that >he probably is covered by the legal definition of treason and should be >tried for such by American courts. > >Gautam All good points. I might also point out that if Walker had sworn allegiance to the Taliban government, whether the US recognizes it as the government of Afghanistan or not, he automatically forfeited his US citizenship. That is US law. The more I read about him, I became persuaded that not only did he know what he was becoming involved in, but also that he fully approved of what the Taliban and Al Qaeda were doing. john
