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Despite its proud history as a stable constitutional democracy, the US has, for 10 years, been affected by post-traumatic shock, following the horrific events of 11 September 2001. I can find no other explanation for the barbaric mistreatment and continued detention of a gentle young man like John Lindh.

, and was moved by its depiction of the pilgrims in Mecca. He began to explore Islam and, four years later, decided to convert.

John had always been a good student, but his study habits improved after his conversion. He immersed himself in Islamic literature, and quickly came to the conclusion that he needed to learn Arabic in order to continue his studies.

End of April 2001 John wrote to me and his mother and said he planned to go into the mountains to escape the oppressive summer heat. We had no contact from him for seven months. Without us, he crossed the Khyber Pass to Afghanistan, with the intention of volunteering for service in the Afghan army under the control of the Taliban government.

John 's mother and I became increasingly worried as the summer passed. John had warned us that there may be gaps in his contact with us, because there are no Internet cafes in the mountains of Pakistan to send the e-mails. But we did not expect to find a complete sequence of the correspondence from him. We have also never thought he was in Afghanistan than Pakistan. John 's mother, especially, was beside herself with worry, as the months passed with no word from him.

At that time, the Taliban ruled most of Afghanistan, and in a long civil war against Russia supported insurgency committed euphemistically known as the Northern Alliance. John was quickly accepted as a volunteer soldier, and received two months of infantry training at a Taliban military camp before he was sent to the front.

Rohan Gunaratna, an international terrorism expert and author of the book Inside Al-Qaeda: Global Network of Terror, conducted a lengthy interview with John, and prepared a written report for the American court to which John was brought for trial. Gunaratna is an expert consultant to the US government itself on terrorism matters. "Those who, like Mr Lindh, merely fought the Northern Alliance," he wrote, "cannot be deemed terrorists. Their motivation was to serve and to protect suffering Muslims in Afghanistan, not to kill civilians."

John described his motivation in a similar manner. "I felt myself," he later explained to the court, "that I can help a commitment that I was perceived to be an Islamic liberation movement against the warlords who occupy several provinces in northern Afghanistan had. I had learned from books committed items and persons with first hand experience of numerous atrocities by the Northern Alliance against the civilian population. I had heard reports of massacres, child rape, torture and castration. "

called this "a first, cautious step toward reducing the isolation of the Taliban" by the new Bush administration.

This is not to suggest the US was entirely friendly with the Taliban. In 1999, President Clinton placed the Taliban government under economic sanctions as a consequence of its human rights violations, particularly against women. But there were no hostilities between the US and the Taliban, and by 2001 relations were improving.

The training camp in Afghanistan where the Ansar received their infantry training was funded by Osama bin Laden, who also visited the camp on a regular basis. He was regarded by the volunteer soldiers as a hero in the struggle against the Soviet Union. These soldiers did not suspect Bin Laden's involvement in planning the 9/11 attacks, which were carried out in secret. John himself sat through speeches by Bin Laden in the camp on two occasions, and actually met Bin Laden on the second such occasion. John has said he found him unimpressive.

The American invasion of Afghanistan commenced in October 2001. Few American troops were deployed in the northern reaches of Afghanistan. The Americans relied on Northern Alliance forces as their proxy, combined with aerial bombing, to displace the Taliban forces.

In the video, John sits mutely on the ground as he is questioned about his nationality.

I think it was apparent that Spann and Tyson were American agents, but because they were in the company of Dostum's forces, unaccompanied by American troops, it clearly was not safe for John to talk to them. They meant business when they said John might be killed by Dostum, and that the Red Cross could only "help so many guys". John was in extreme peril at that moment, and he knew it.

John was then returned to the main part of the prisoners, while others are brought from the basement and forced to kneel in the horse pasture. Then, suddenly, there was an explosion at the entrance to the basement, screams were heard, and two prisoners took the guards 'weapons. After Guardian Journalist Luke Harding 's account: "... It was then that Spann' .. a Rambo 'tat, like the rest of the guards ran away, threw himself on the ground clamp and began to rake the yard and his prisoners with automatic fire Five or six prisoners jumped on him and he disappeared under a pile of corpses. "

Spann 's body was later U.S. special forces troops recovered. He was the first American to die in combat in the US-Afghan war. He was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington.

Once the uprising began, turned the Northern Alliance guards killed her arms on the 400 bound prisoners or wounded dozens of them. Some prisoners tried to get up and running, they were shot down. It was a slaughter. John tried to run, but he was shot in the right thigh and fell to the ground. For the next 12 hours he lay motionless, pretending to be dead.

Newsweek

Even the ultra-conservative National Review

The case of United States of America v John Philip Walker Lindh was set for trial before Judge T S Ellis III. On 24 January, the judge announced he was setting a trial date for late August. We were horrified, as this would ensure that John would be on trial on the first anniversary of 9/11. It would be hard to conceive of a more prejudicial circumstance for a criminal defendant, especially in the wake of the intemperate statements attorney general Ashcroft had made in his two press conferences.

In the plea agreement John admitted that by serving as a soldier in Afghanistan, he had violated the anti-Taliban economic sanctions imposed by President Clinton and expanded by President Bush. This was, as John 's attorney pointed out a "regulatory violation". John also agreed to a "free of weapons of" that was used to enhance his sentence. In particular, he realized that he carried a rifle and two hand grenades during his time as a soldier in the army, Taliban. All other counts in the indictment were dropped by the government, including terrorism charges, the Attorney General emphasized so strongly and had the charge of conspiracy to commit murder in the death of Mike Spann.

At the urging of Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, the plea agreement also contained a clause that gave John his claims of torture.

The sentence in the plea agreement was tough in every way: 20 years imprisonment on the first December 2001, came the day that John in the hands of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The prosecutor said John 's lawyers that the White House insisted that the lengthy sentence, and that they do not negotiate down.

On 4 October 2002 agreed to the plea agreement as a judge of the "just and reasonable" John and sentenced to prison. Before the verdict was announced, John was allowed a prepared statement, which provided a moment of intense drama in the crowded courtroom available to read. He spoke with strong emotions. He explained why he went to Afghanistan to the Taliban to help in their battle with the Northern Alliance, saying it stood by his compassion for the suffering of ordinary people, the atrocities that had been subjected by the Northern Alliance committed. He explained that when he went to Afghanistan 'saw the war between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance as a continuation of the war between the mujahideen and the Soviets'.

John strongly condemned terrorism. "I went to Afghanistan with the intention of the fight against terrorism and oppression." He had acted, he said, out of a sense of religious duty, and he condemned terrorism as a "totally against Islam". He said, "I have never supported terrorism in any form and would never".

The author has donated the fee for this article to charity.