The American Taliban, 10 years

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29 September 2011 Last updated at 02:51 GMT By Steve Swann and Gordon Corera BBC News John Lindh's father wants presidential clemency for his son

The television images of the bedraggled and bewildered young American detained in Afghanistan months after 9/11 were beamed across the world. They were seared into the consciousness of the country which quickly came to know him as the "American Taliban".

On a quiet suburban street in Mill Valley, a prosperous town a few miles north of San Francisco, the Islamic Centre is slowly emptying after holding Friday prayers.

Once the crowds have gone, Abdullah Nana recounts how over a decade ago a white teenager turned up, confused and looking for answers. "He was at a crossroads at that time. He was unsure of his direction in this world. It seemed that Islam and religion was a way for him to spiritually fulfil himself."

Mr Nana says he quickly became friends with the 16-year-old, who converted to Islam and soon set himself the daunting task of learning Arabic and memorising the Koran.

Continue reading the main story Currently serving 20-year sentenceBorn in 1981, he converted to Islam in 1997Went to Afghanistan in May 2001 to fight with TalibanArrested in November 2001; sentenced in October 2002That boy was John Lindh, also known as John Walker Lindh, who grew up in a middle-class Catholic family, and is now a prisoner in the "special communications unit" in Terre Haute, Indiana, halfway through a 20-year sentence.

His family argue that it is time to look again at the case of "Detainee 001", the first terror suspect picked up in the "war on terror" which President Bush declared 10 years ago.

According to his father Frank, he is housed in a special wing at the west end of the building which had originally been used as death row. It is here that Lindh, who is enrolled on a correspondence course with Indiana University, has completed the task of memorising the Koran.

Adventure

At the age of 17 he had got his parents' permission to travel to Yemen to study Arabic. He briefly returned to California but couldn't settle so he headed back to Yemen from where he wrote to ask his father if he could go to Pakistan to continue his studies. Frank Lindh replied: "I trust your judgment and hope you have a wonderful adventure."

Father and son on family holiday in New York

Once there, Lindh enrolled at a religious school in the village of Bannu in the North West Frontier Province where it seems his views hardened. Without his parents knowing, in June 2001 he slipped over the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan.

Once there, with the assistance of a militant group, he received two months of military training at the al-Farouq training camp which was financed by Osama Bin Laden. Twice that summer he met the al-Qaeda leader but Frank Lindh denies his son had anything to do with terrorism, claiming he "was one of thousands of young Muslims who over the years volunteered their services in Afghanistan against the Russian-backed warlords" of the Northern Alliance.

But Michael Chertoff, who was assistant attorney general at the time, says Lindh "went to fight for a regime that was hostile to the United States and that supported the 9/11 attacks. So in my book, that's pretty serious. It's not quite treason but it's what I would call a kissing cousin to treason".

Pivotal moment

The original indictment against him shows that Lindh was approached by al-Qaeda to carry out an attack in the United States or Israel but he refused. By early September he was serving in a corps of 75 non-Afghan soldiers in the Takhar region of north-eastern Afghanistan. It was then that everything changed, according to Frank Lindh.

"There was a pivotal moment in history. 9/11 occurred and then the American government made a decision to change our policy very abruptly and invade Afghanistan and topple the Taliban government."

Shortly after the aerial bombardment of the country began, Lindh's unit was forced to retreat, walking through the desert to Kunduz where they surrendered to the Northern Alliance. They were transported to the Qala-i-Jangi fortress on the outskirts of Mazar-i-Sharif which was under the control of the warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum.

When a battle erupted within the fortress, a CIA officer and 100 prisoners were killed. Lindh was shot in the leg. For the following week, he and other survivors huddled in a basement. He claims that Dostum's forces lobbed grenades down air ducts, killing more prisoners, and then pumped in freezing water to try to drown them.

With shrapnel wounds and hypothermia, Lindh managed to get above ground and on 1 December 2001 was handed over to US custody.

Anger

Lindh, after his capture, photographed by a US soldier

It was then, after hearing nothing for seven months and growing increasingly frantic, that Lindh's parents discovered what had happened to him. They saw an online news article which contained a grainy photograph of what they immediately recognised was their son.

Frank Lindh is angry about what happened next. His son was flown to a marine base at Camp Rhino where he claims they "left him in an unheated metal shipping container completely naked for two days and two nights in the desert in Afghanistan" with his "wounds untreated".

There then began what Lindh's mother, Marilyn Walker, describes as an unstoppable "tidal wave" of negative media coverage. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that Lindh was "an al-Qaeda-trained terrorist who conspired with the Taliban to kill his fellow citizens".

"That image was sealed in the minds of people when they were emotionally distraught and in grief after 9/11," says Frank Lindh.

It was into this atmosphere in January 2002 that Lindh was flown back to the United States, but in a last-minute plea bargain the authorities dropped the terrorism and al-Qaeda charges in return for Lindh pleading guilty to supporting the Taliban and dropping his claims of mistreatment.

Appearing in court, John Lindh acknowledged: "I made a mistake by joining the Taliban… I want the American people to know that had I realised then what I know now about the Taliban, I would never have joined them."

Wrong place

The 20-year sentence was, according to his father, the best he could hope for since "the well was poisoned against my son in the United States".

Michael Chertoff defends the outcome. "He pleaded guilty, the judge imposed what seemed an appropriate sentence and I assume he'll serve it out." Reacting to the claim that Lindh was in the wrong place at the wrong time, Mr Chertoff says: "The prisons are full of people who say they were in the wrong place at the wrong time."

So the visits continue to Terre Haute where, separated by glass, Lindh speaks to his family over a telephone which is monitored.

Marilyn Walker, Lindh's mother

Lindh never shows a sign of self-pity, his father says, and never complains, but had once told him that this was a deliberate tactic. "He feels that complaining would yield something to the authorities who are imprisoning him," says Frank Lindh.

Lindh's parents try to chip away at what they see as a false public image of the "American Taliban".

Marilyn Walker says: "It's critical for John's life at whatever point he gets out of prison that he is able to live without having to look over his shoulder for someone that wants to do him harm".

Though his parents hope the president will one day grant clemency to allow an early release, they recognise the prospect is unlikely.

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10 Years after 9 / 11 NATO future remains uncertain

Meeting in Brussels only a few hours after levels taken, Nick Burns, then US Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, headquarters of the Alliance thought he had to do the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, some to convince the rest of the NATO member countries of America's defense to get. But rather than hesitate to show, he, America's allies immediately voluntarily says their support even before the accident had ROWCOUNT is clear. "It was a great moment of Alliance solidarity in a very tragic day," Burns, recalls the now an international relations Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

[Read more about NATO.]

All at once, was the original purpose of NATO both revived and overhauled shown. In fact, a renewed relevance in a cold war world was the attacks on America the Alliance on the basis of the values in the short term. But in the intervening ten years with the global fight against terrorism issues have also added new levels of complexity and new questions about the future of the Alliance.

12, September 2001 as an act of solidarity with Americans after the previous disaster, the allies article 5 - the binding promise of mutual defence of group - called for the first time in history. Originally developed in terms of Russia, article 5 says that all Member States "an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America are an attack against them all." The countries of the United States with the urgency and the energy State. "The expectation was for 50 years, it would be to overthrow that to defend Europe in a war against the Soviet Union the United States, and the irony was that the only time we had invoked per article 5, that the next day, and it for the Europeans was to overthrow, to defend the United States" said Burns.

The reality in the Middle, soon became clear there that the gesture had opened NATO up to a completely different set of challenges than previously had. On the one hand, the enemy was not a country but a group of non-State actors, al-Qaeda. The threat of terror were also allies, United caused by had is based on the term of protection of a geographical location, a new feature. She could not only defend their own territory; to fight the terrorists, they would have to go far above and beyond. "This was NATO's natural evolution after 9 / 11", said Burns. "It became very clear that Europe largely peaceful and safe was in the interests of allies of terrorism directly [and affected were] what was the wars in Afghanistan and the Iraq." "So, quickly became clear that NATO had to go natural geographic area, because the interests of our members were threatened by his outside."

[Read you like 9 / 11 U.S. immigration policy transformed.]

The threat of terrorism at this moment, more than per a global problem was when that could not successfully be fought by one country alone. Cooperation was importance it through NATO, the United Nations or ad-hoc partnerships. "We live in this age, when all that are really interesting security problems for a State to deal with, too big", says Jeff Lewis, Director of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterrey Institute of international studies program East Asia non-proliferation. "So, you have to have cooperation and alliances are an important aspect of cooperation."

Only a month after the World Trade Center and the Pentagon attack, news reports reflected hopeful mood that the tragedy could be an opportunity for rejuvenating the NATO, had been the decline of a common global topic through the last ten years. But as the United States began in October 2001, his campaign against terrorists in Afghanistan Americans, under the leadership of President George W. Bush at first seemed rejection of NATO efforts and take things into their own hands, says Stewart Patrick, Director of international institutions and global governance program at the Council on foreign relations. That changed in 2003, he says, according to the United States decided to invade the Iraq. "It was only partly, because the United States felt pretty thin after the invasion of Iraq, which really open was the United States to the concept of NATO, taking over the ISAF or the international security force in Afghanistan" Patrick says.

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'Nevermind,' 20 Years Later: 20 Reasons Why Nirvana Is Still Awesome

The swimming baby is all grown up and that dollar bill he's chasing is worth about 60 cents. Nirvana's blockbuster album Nevermind—you know, the one that brought us “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Come As You Are”—was released 20 years ago, on Sept. 24, 1991. Bust out those old Doc Martens and throw on an oversized T-shirt, because here are 20 reasons why Nirvana is still great.
(VIDEOS: 20 Years of Nevermind)
1. Nirvana popularized grunge, which in turn popularized flannel shirts. Thanks to them, the early '90s were really comfortable.
2. They also helped America overcome its debilitating 1980s synthesizer affliction.
3. The cover of David Bowie's “The Man Who Sold the World” rivals the original.
4. The band was so good that drummer Dave Grohl's songwriting skills weren't even needed. He had to wait until the Foo Fighters before he could really show off.
5. That loveable, fuzzy, ugly green cardigan.
6. Before settling on a permanent band name, Nirvana was briefly known as Pen Cap Chew. This is kind of funny. Wait, was Nirvana funny?
7. This story, told by Le Tigre's Kathleen Hanna.
8. The band members were reportedly thrown out of their own record release party for Nevermind because they started a food fight.
9. Sometimes Nirvana wore dresses.
10. It reportedly cost $606 to record Bleach.
11. In one version of “I Hate Myself And I Want to Die,” Cobain recites a “Deep Thoughts” quote from SNL's Jack Handy in the middle of the song. He says, “Most people don't realize that large pieces of coral, which have been painted brown and attached to the skull by common wood screws, can make a child look like a deer.” This is also funny. Hey guys! Nirvana was funny!
12. Nirvana did two shows with with Bobcat Goldthwait. This isn't funny, this is just weird.
13. That one time Kurt Cobain performed in a Barney costume.
14. Frances Bean Cobain grew up to be pretty badass.
15. I mean, have you listened to “All Apologies” recently?
16. Kurt Cobain's Bette Midler impression.
(PHOTOS: Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' No Longer A Teenager)
17. Is that a rubber duck noise in “Drain You?”
18. When MTV forbids Nirvana from playing “Rape Me” at the 1992 Video Music Awards, the band does it anyway. Well, briefly.
19. They inspired this Weird Al song.

20. Nirvana released only three studio albums. Twenty years later, we're still talking about them.

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Lost for 80 years, Alfred Hitchcock's Earliest Known Film Makes Its Debut

National Film Preservation Foundation

Whether it's a discovery made due to one man's hoarding or his collecting habits is unclear — either way, a gem has been uncovered in the form of Alfred Hitchcock's very first film, locked away for almost 80 years.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences screened the first 30 minutes of the famed director's 1923 film “The White Shadow” on Thursday at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Los Angeles. Hitchcock wrote, designed, edited and assistant-directed the film — "an atmospheric melodrama starring Betty Compson in a dual role as twin sisters, one angelic and the other 'without a soul'" — when he was just 24 years old.
The silent film was discovered thanks to a large treasure trove of films left by an avid collector and cinema projectionist named James Murtagh in New Zealand. The lone print was stored in a garden shed in the North Island town of Hastings, apparently for decades, until the New Zealand Film Archive got their hands on the hundreds of films in Murtagh's collection after his death in 1989.
(MORE: Unexpected Twist: Early Alfred Hitchcock Credit Found in New Zealand Archive)
How could such a rare piece of film history turn up in a small New Zealand town, of all places? The land of the Kiwis used to be the last stop on overseas distribution tours from Hollywood, and studios preferred to avoid the hassle of shipping the prints back to the States, opting to discard the films instead.
So Murtagh, who reportedly found it impossible to let go of the films he screened, amassed a rather impressive collection; he also had the only surviving copy the 1927 film “Upstream,” directed by John Ford (“The Grapes of Wrath," “Stagecoach”).
Thanks to some film preservationists and the mild climate of New Zealand, “The White Shadow” is in pretty good condition. Of course, the film buffs are all about this find. The chairman of the National Society of Film Critics, David Sterritt, explains, “These first three reels offer a priceless opportunity to study his visual and narrative ideas when they were first taking shape.” The film will no doubt be a must-see for students of Hitchcock's legendary techniques of suspense and mystery.

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70 Years later, Florida Man holds Bar Mitzvah

Published September 11, 2011| Associated Press

SARASOTA (Florida) - an old Sarasota man of 82 his held bar mitzvah - the ritual of the coming of age traditionally extended to Jewish boys on turn 13 - almost 70 years later.

Never, soil Laufer presents his bar mitzvah when he was a teenager in 1941, because the Nazis placed Laufer and his family in a Jewish ghetto during the second world war. He was later sent to concentration camp, where he survived on flour and watery soup and wood sawdust bread rations and became ill until the Soviets liberated the camp in 1945.

His entire family was killed in the Holocaust.

Saturday, Laufer sound will hold bar mitzvah Habad of Sarasota. He is a pensioner who founded a company of optical systems high-end.

The Lubavitcher rabbi, said that Laufer is the oldest initiation he never carried out.

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