John Walker Lindh, the American Taliban, seeks Irish citizenship - POLL

Irish American likely to settle in Ireland on his release if given citizenship

Larger Text

Print

E-mail

62 Comments

John Walker Lindh pictured in Dublin

Photo by Broadsheet.ie

Tweet

IrishCentral.com Poll

Should John Walker Lindh, the American Taliban, be given Irish citizenship?

Yes.

No.

Maybe, after some review of his case.

The father of American-born Taliban solider, John Walker Lindh, who is serving 20 years in prison, is petitioning for his son to be granted Irish citizenship. It is likely he will seek to settle there on his release.

Frank Lindh also belives that the Irish government could question his son’s treatment by American authorities if he was an Irish citizen.

When John Walker Lindh was captured in Afghanistan he told the soldiers he was Irish to try and disguise his US citizenship. His preferred name is now Abu Sulayman al-Irlandi (the Irlandi title refers to Lindh's claim to be Irish).

The young man’s father, who is Irish American, spoke to Newstalk radio about his son and his plan to get Irish citizenship. Frank Lindh’s mother is from Donegal.

Walker Lindh and his father visited Ireland in 1998 (see photo above) at the time “he found Irish people to be open and accepting,” according to a Broadsheet.ie report.

-----------------

Read more:

More news from Ireland on IrishCentral

Obama’s Irish cousin wants out of jury duty to meet US president

Senator Scott Brown says Irish E3 immigrant visa bill is “about to pop”

-----------------

In his interview on Newstalk radio in Ireland Lindh’s father stated that

•    He believes  his son  will be released from his 20 yrs sentence in 7 yrs on parole.
•    He hopes his son could live in Ireland when he gets out of prison.
•    He says his son will not be safe in America. That's why he hopes his son might be able to live in Ireland.
•    He thinks many in America believe his son was involved in 9/11. He says that statements by Pres Bush & others have marked John out as a terrorist.
•    He is working on getting Irish passports for all three of his kids.
•    He expects no issue getting Irish citizenship for JWL
•    He figures Irish govt should support him because of human rights issue in John's case.

Last year, Lindh spoke at the University of San Francisco, School of Law and told of how his son was handling prison nearly a decade after being captured. In 2002, his son pleaded guilty to supplying the Taliban government and carrying explosives for them. He was charged with conspiring to kill Americans and support terrorists. Those charges were dropped in a plea agreement.

Print

E-mail

Tweet