Lindh Seeks Mazar-e-Sharif Witness
Lawyers for John Walker Lindh, an American who fought for the Taliban, said Friday they want to subpoena an unidentified U.S. agent who was present during a prison uprising in Afghanistan where Lindh was held captive.
Known as CS-1, the agent interviewed Lindh at the time of the Mazar-e-Sharif revolt, which resulted in the death of CIA officer Johnny Micheal Spann. Lindh's lawyers asked U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III to require the agent's appearance at a hearing July 15 and at trial, currently set to start Aug. 26.
The indictment of Lindh, 21, mentions the death of Spann but does not accuse Lindh of killing him. The defense wants to show that Lindh joined the Taliban to fight northern alliance soldiers and had no role in killing Americans.
Earlier in the week, prosecutors offered defense lawyers 13 summaries of interviews with al Qaeda and Taliban detainees but insisted the material remain secret.
The summaries are unclassified, but public dissemination could give terrorists valuable information about the direction of investigators, prosecutors in the Lindh case said.
They asked Judge Ellis to order protection for the information. The written motion said sensitive material should be deleted from versions provided to defense lawyers.
The interviews were conducted with suspected operatives captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan and detained at the U.S. naval facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Lindh, who grew up in Marin County, Calif., is charged with conspiring to murder U.S. nationals; providing support and services to foreign terrorist organizations, including the al Qaeda terror network; and using firearms and destructive devices during crimes of violence. Three of the 10 charges carry maximum life sentences; the other seven have prison terms of up to 90 years.
His trial is tentatively scheduled for Aug. 26.
"The identities of the detainees, as well as the questions asked and techniques employed in the interviews, are highly sensitive and confidential," the government motion said.
Detainees may reveal information leading to identification and apprehension of terror suspects and prevention of terrorism, the filing added.
A similar order to protect sensitive unclassified material was issued in the 1999 trial of defendants in the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. In February, a judge hearing the case of Zacarias Moussaoui, charged as an accomplice in the Sept. 11 hijacking attacks, issued a similar order.
The government's proposal would allow Lindh's lawyers to share the reports with experts holding security clearances but could not be shown to potential witnesses without the court's permission.
The information deleted includes names of interviewing agents, file numbers, references to fellow detainees and names of individuals with no involvement in the Lindh case. Also left out were accounts of photo identification sessions not involving Lindh.
Meanwhile, a filing by Moussaoui's lawyer showed that the French citizen is reading his lawyer's legal briefs carefully.
Defense attorney Frank Dunham Jr. told U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema he was withdrawing an allegation that a jail deputy insisted on reading Moussaoui's legal papers.
The allegation was not in a draft memorandum provided to Moussaoui for review but was in papers filed with the court. The mistake "was called to counsel's attention by Mr. Moussaoui when he saw a copy of what had actually been filed," Dunham said.