Walker: As Evil As You Can Get

By Jeffrey Hart | Monday, January 21, 2002

The government has now filed an affidavit accusing twenty year-old Californian John Walker of criminal conspiracy and outlining his activities in Al Qaida and as a Taliban fighter. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison.

Let's get one thing straight. The purpose of the Al Qaida is to kill Americans. Repeat, kill Americans. Kill you, just as they killed thousands at the World Trade Center. That has been the sole purpose of the Afghan training camps, the purpose of their infamous terrorist manual, the purpose of their existence. It follows, as B follows A, that mere membership in Al Qaida merits execution, as a measure of self-defense. Perhaps special Congressional legislation to that effect is called for. Perhaps an executive order by the President would establish that policy.

The Geneva Convention does not apply to Al Qaida, any more than it would have applied to pirates on the old Spanish Main. As soon as a naval vessel captured pirates, they were hanged or drowned. Like pirates, Al Qaida represents no government, fights out of uniform, and obeys no established laws. It deserves the protection of no laws. Once an individual is established as part of Al Qaida, execution should be the summary.

John Walker would face execution if he were convicted of treason. I suppose the Justice Department avoided that charge because the constitutional requirements for conviction are stringent. You must have two witnesses to an overt act, which might be difficult in this case. His defense might claim that in Afghanistan he was fighting only against the Northern Alliance and not against Americans, ha ha ha. I suppose he thought those big bombers were being flown by sheiks. The evidence against Walker in the government affidavit is blatant and shocking.

He learned of plans to send suicide squads to the United States, his own country I have to keep reminding myself, there months before September 11. By his silence, he is complicit in mass murder.

He learned of the hideous plan while completing a training course in an Al Qaida camp. He was thoroughly aware of the goals of Al Qaida and eager to do his part. He said under interrogation by the FBI that he knew Al Qaida is an enemy of the United States and that he was eager to put his new skills into operation on the battlefield.

He told the FBI how he had converted to Islam in 1997, traveled to Yemen the next year to get Islam full blast, studied Arabic and the Koran, moved to Pakistan in 2000 to continue his studies, and last May enrolled in a paramilitary training camp, the only purpose of which was to pursue Jihad or Holy War against infidels, that is, us.

By June he had traveled to Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban, and was assigned to a Mujahedeen outfit which was headed at some distance from daily operations by Osama bin Laden himself. Bin Laden, of course, makes no secret of his loathing for the United States. We now have his infamous videotape showing him gloating about the murderous attack by the suicide hijackers. With this outfit, Walker was trained in the use of various weapons and explosives.

According to the affidavit, 'Walker reported that bin Laden visited the camp on three to five occasions and gave lectures. On at least one of there occasions Walker and four other trainees met with bin Laden for taking part in Jihad.'

At one point, Walker apparently was offered an opportunity to join the projected operations in the United States—a chance at martyrdom, after all he approved of September 11—but he chose instead to fight on the side of the Taliban against the forces of the Northern Alliance and the United States.

The affidavit says that Walker learned about September 11 on that day or the following one by listening to the radio. 'According to Walker, it was his and his comrades' understanding at the time that bin Laden had ordered the attacks and that additional attacks would follow.'

Enough already. It cannot be maintained that Walker was engaged only in a domestic civil war between the Northern Alliance and the Taliban. He had deliberately enlisted in an international network specifically devoted to killing Americans and hoping to destroy the United States itself. In a comprehensive way Al Qaida is cold-bloodedly opposed to everything the United States represents—religiously, politically, economically, socially. It doesn't bother to conceal its enmity. In fact, it is proud of it. Walker was well aware of all this, and became a part of the organization.

It is difficult even to imagine a more thoroughgoing treason.

In 1940, as war raged in Europe and England was being bombed, Franklin Roosevelt used a homely example to promote lend-lease aid. He said that when your neighbor's house is on fire and you have a hose, you lend it to him.

In the same vein, if your neighbor has said that he's repeatedly going to kill you, has written a pamphlet about killing you, has a target on his lawn with a picture of you on it, and is regularly doing target practice, do you just wait to see what might happen?

It is being said that John Walker is 'only' twenty years old. That he was 'trying to find himself.' Nonsense. A man twenty years old has been able to vote for two years. When he was eighteen he was considered old enough to join the armed forces. Give Walker the credit for being serious about what he was doing at age twenty.

He deserves the noose. Too bad he'll probably escape with life in prison. We aren't quite serious yet about the 'war on terrorism.'

Walker: As Evil As You Can Get

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