US: The US Government has charged a former Taliban fighter, Mr John Walker Lindh (20), who is a US citizen, with conspiracy to kill US nationals and two counts of giving material aid to a terrorist organisation.
The charges, which carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, specify that the offence relates to activities in Afghanistan from May 2001 to December when he was allegedly part of an al-Qaeda front organisation.
The decision not to charge him with a capital offence, including treason, will be a relief to Mr Walker's California-based family. The Department of Justice had been hinting that the burden of proof required for treason made it unlikely despite the enthusiasm on the right here for such charges.
Walker was identified after being captured in November when he took part in the prison uprising at Mazar-e-Sharif and is now held on the USS Bataan in the Arabian Sea, was brought up in Maryland and then California as a Catholic and converted to Islam.
As a US citizen Walker was always expected to be tried in a civilian court while many of his former comrades will face charges in special military tribunals.
The conspiracy charge reflects the reality that the authorities do not have evidence of specific acts against US soldiers.
At a press conference to announce the charges, the Attorney General, Mr John Ashcroft, said that Mr Walker had "knowingly and purposely" joined al-Qaeda and had admitted to knowing both about the September 11th attack and that he was engaged in fighting US forces.
The charges, Mr Ashcroft said, were based on the testimony given by Mr Walker to the FBI after he had been offered and waived his "Miranda" rights to counsel and silence. He will now be transferred to FBI custody.
"Youth is not absolution for treachery," Mr Ashcroft said, claiming that Mr Walker had met Osama bin Laden while at one of the al-Qaeda training camps. Bin Laden is alleged to have thanked him for participating in the "jihad". Mr Ashcroft said the state reserved the right to press further charges if further evidence warranted them.
Meanwhile, the US Treasury Department is ready to unfreeze some $221 million in Afghan assets frozen in 1999 and hand them back to the new government. The cash, assets of the Afghan Central Bank, were frozen by the Clinton administration in retaliation for harbouring of al-Qaeda suspects in the bombing of US embassies in Africa.
Indeed, their seizure by the US may have protected them from being plundered. As reported last week, the few million left in the bank's various branches were last seen disappearing in sacks in the back of pick-up trucks on the orders of Mullah Mohamed Omar.
The cash will be enormously welcome to the new government which has no means of meeting a payroll bill for some 210,000 civil servants and 25,000 police whose support is crucial to the new regime.
The US is likely to hand it over on the eve of a major donor conference in Tokyo on January 21st when the international community will be asked for more than $10 billion to meet the country's rebuilding and development needs. Some estimates put the needs far higher.
The UN Security Council, at the initiative of the United States, lifted sanctions yesterday on the Afghan national airline - a prelude to an overhaul of sanctions that the council is expected to approve before Friday.
US warplanes yesterday began seeking new targets after demolishing al-Qaeda and Taliban hide-outs in eastern Afghanistan, as US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, headed for the stricken country to pledge support for reconstruction after three decades of war.
In a reminder of the danger still facing US ground forces, marines seized weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades and mortar bombs hidden in tunnels and under a building on the doorstep of their base at Kandahar airport.
The ammunition and tunnel system were probably linked to a brief, surprise small-arms attack on the marine camp last Thursday when the first planeload of al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners was taking off for Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba, military sources said.
At the base where 50 al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters are now being held, navy doctors operated on one after he was sedated for pain from a month-old gunshot wound. US Defence Department spokeswoman, Ms Victoria Clarke, countering concerns of human rights groups, said the wound in the upper arm of the man was about a month old and that the successful surgical procedure to open and drain it was explained to the captive before it was done.
Britain dismissed criticism yesterday of the treatment of the prisoners, who include three Britons.
