Concerns are mounting over the expected prison release of American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh this week amid disturbing reports of his jihadist beliefs.
Johnny Spann — whose CIA officer son Mike was killed in an uprising of Taliban prisoners in 2001 in Afghanistan where Lindh was being held — wrote in a letter to a Virginia federal court that Lindh "ignored" conditions placed on him in his 2002 plea deal, CNN reported.
"Nothing will be gained by not enforcing the Laws of the United States and holding those that break it accountable for their actions," Spann wrote the court, CNN reported.
Spann cited a National Counterterrorism Center document — reported by Foreign Policy in 2017 — Lindh "continued to advocate for global jihad and to write and translate violent extremist texts" from behind bars. And Lindh allegedly "told a television news producer he'd continue to spread violent extremist Islam upon his release," according to the NCTC document, Spann argued.
In his petition, Spann asked the court to order "a thorough investigation of the actions of John Walker Lindh that have been reported by the National Counterterrorism Center," CNN reported.
"With all these reports that are out, all these things that have been said and reported, what I am asking to happen is that they do an intense investigation, a thorough investigation of those reports to see if he actually has done that," Spann told CNN.
Meanwhile, NBC News reported Lindh's 2015 letter from prison to a Los Angeles NBC affiliate expressed support for ISIS, saying the terror group that beheaded Americans was "doing a spectacular job."
"The Islamic State is clearly very sincere and serious about fulfilling the long-neglected religious obligation to establish a caliphate through armed struggle, which is the only correct method," Lindh wrote, NBC News reported.
In another letter to NBC 4 Los Angeles, Lindh said he was proud "to take part in the Afghan jihad," NBC News reported.
Lindh's correspondence with journalists and other comments he made in prison formed part of the basis of a 2016 intelligence document by the National Counter Terrorism Center saying Lindh "continued to advocate for global jihad and to write and translate violent extremist texts," NBC News reported.
A memo making a similar point was circulating among authorities last week, the news outlet reported, citing an unnamed U.S. official who read the memo.
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