12/20/2001

Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Dizzy from morphine and weary from battle, American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh said in an interview soon after his capture that he had been a part of Ansar, the Arab fighters funded by Osama bin Laden who fought for the Taliban.

He also said he had attended an Ansar training camp.

The interview was conducted Dec. 2 by a CNN reporter and was aired in its entirety for the first time Wednesday.

What he did while traveling with the Taliban could play a key role in what charges he might face in the United States.

Mr. Walker, a 20-year-old American from San Anselmo, Calif., was found holed up with captured Taliban fighters last month, after Northern Alliance forces quelled a prison uprising in northern Afghanistan.

In the interview, he told of dodging grenades and helping other Taliban fighters as Northern Alliance forces closed in on the city of Mazar-e Sharif.

His face was blackened from battle, and he swooned as he spoke. He said he was taking morphine to quell the pain from a gunshot wound.

He defended the Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, saying the Quran permits Muslims to kill other Muslims in cases of holy war.

"That is a question that is addressed in the Quran itself," he said. "There are situations in which a Muslim can be killed [by other Muslims]."

Asked if it was the right cause, he said, "Definitely."

He gave this account:

The Taliban fighters were organized in branches based on ethnic groups. At first, he stayed with Taliban fighters from Pakistan, where he had studied for a couple of years.

But because he spoke Arabic, he was put with the group of Arab fighters who were funded by Mr. bin Laden.

He joined the Taliban in Afghanistan because his "heart became attached to the movement. I wanted to help them one way or another."

After being captured, a few Taliban soldiers hid grenades in their clothes as they were taken to prison. He called the uprising a "mistake of a handful of people" because the Taliban soldiers had agreed not to fight.

"This is against what we had agreed upon, and this is against Islam," Mr. Walker said. "It is a major sin to break a contract, especially in military situations."

The spirits of the Taliban fighters were broken when rebel forces pumped gas, then water, into the prison.

"More than half of us were injured on that last day when they poured water into the basement," he said. "We were standing in water, freezing water, for maybe 20 hours."

Talk of surrender came quickly.

The prison "was filled with the stench of bodies, and we didn't have any more weapons available. We said, 'Look we're gonna die,' " he said.

"If we surrender, the worst that can happen is they'll torture us or kill us. So right here in the basement, they're torturing us and killing us, so we might as well surrender."

Another videotape of Mr. Walker, aired by ABC News, showed his interrogation by CIA agents before the uprising. He sat despondent, in a dusty clearing with his hands tied behind his back. His clothing was tattered and dirty; his hair hid his face. His interrogators were Johnny "Mike" Spann, who was later killed in the uprising, and an agent known only as Dave.

Mr. Walker didn't answer any questions during the interrogation and was led away.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Wednesday that President Bush would make a decision about Mr. Walker once Justice Department and Pentagon officials finish reviewing his case.

"He is being treated as someone who fought against the United States in an armed conflict. And that's why he's classified properly as a battlefield detainee, and he is being treated well," Mr. Fleischer said.