Getting Away With Murder by Richard D. Mahoney

Author:Richard D. Mahoney
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2004-04-22T04:00:00+00:00

May 15, 2000

Madrassa al-Arabia

Hassanni Kalan Surani, near Bannu, Pakistan

As the prosecution and the defense prepared for trial in the first months of 2002, the journey of John Walker Lindh became central to his guilt or innocence. His movements were thought to reflect his possible intent—deadly or benign?—as well as his association with Islamic violence—deliberate or incidental? Did his movements from Yemen to Pakistan and Afghanistan reveal a growing determination to become a jihadi, to conduct war against America? Or were they merely the wanderings of a restless religious tourist who eventually blundered into a lion's den? Was his rendezvous with destiny in Qala-e Janghi the consequence of would-be terrorism, or merely a factor of being in the wrong place at the wrong time? The U.S. government sent a team of FBI agents to trace Lindh's steps, and the defense dispatched two of the best private investigators in San Francisco, David Fecheimer and Barry Simon, both with experience in the Middle East and the subcontinent.15

Walker made two trips to Yemen—the first in 1998, the second in 2000. On his initial visit he landed in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, in June 1998 and enrolled as planned at the Yemen Language Center, a decorously appointed and well-run program of study, according to its former students. First impressions of the eighteen-year-old Californian (and second ones as well) were not complimentary. “First of all,” Robertson Gaffney, a fellow student, remembered, “he looked like a total goof.” John's South Asian Muslim get-up, which he insisted on wearing everywhere, looked weird even to the Yemenis. Then there was his Arabic-affected accent, complete with broken English.16 If that were not enough, his fellow students had to contend with his Islamic name, which some wag at the YLC changed to “Yusuf Islam,” the name of ‘70s pop singer and Muslim convert Cat Stevens.

Within days of starting his language studies, Suleyman began complaining to the director of the language institute, Sabri Saleem, about the fact that there were women in his class. “This is a language institute, not an Islamic madrassa,” Saleem explained. The other students at the YLC liked going out at night—- and this Suleyman did not like either. He posted a note on the door of fellow foreign students who lived across from his room: “Dear Inhabitants of This Room, Please abstain from getting naked in front of the window. Our neighbors from the apartment building across the street have complained to Sabri, who has ignored them. However, this is not a matter to be taken lightly. Some of our neighbors have threatened to shoot Sabri and/or the inhabitants of this room and the room next door. Please pass this message on to the inhabitants of room #2, and thank you for your decency.”17

Not long after his arrival, Suleyman exchanged several hundred dollars for Yemeni rials. On his way back from the money market, he came upon a group of beggars and decided to do his Islamic duty and provide alms for the poor. “When you

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