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American Taliban pleads guilty

ALEXANDRIA (U.S.) JULY 16. John Walker Lindh, the young convert to Islam who left California to fight alongside the Taliban, pleaded guilty to two charges on Monday in a surprise deal that spares him life in prison and ensures his cooperation with terrorism investigators.

Lindh faces a maximum of 20 years in prison under the agreement struck just hours before he was to appear in court for a hearing ahead of what would have been the first major U.S. trial stemming from the war on terrorism.

``I provided my services as a soldier to the Taliban last year from about August to November,'' Lindh told U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, recounting the two crimes to which he pleaded guilty. ``During the course of doing, so I carried a rifle and two grenades. And I did so knowingly and willingly,'' he said. In accepting the plea, prosecutors foreclosed the chance for the public to see evidence in the first major trial scheduled from the war on terrorism.

U.S. Attorney, Paul McNulty, said prosecutors had a strong case against Lindh but wanted to reserve ``limited and very vital resources'' for other terrorism cases. ``This is a tough sentence. This is an appropriate punishment", Mr. McNulty said. — AP

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