Bail Denied For 'American Taliban'

They're using a "cannon" to shoot a "mouse." That's how a lawyer for John Walker Lindh describes the efforts by the U.S. Justice Department to prosecute the man known as the "American Taliban."

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James Brosnahan said he applauds the efforts of Attorney General John Ashcroft and others to track down Osama bin Laden, and the leader of the Taliban -- and to find out who sent anthrax in the mail.

But he said they shouldn't be taking out their frustrations on Walker Lindh.

He spoke to reporters after a federal magistrate judge in Alexandria, Va., rejected efforts by defense lawyers to have Walker Lindh set free until his trial.

During Wednesday's detention hearing, federal prosecutors argued against the release of Walker Lindh, the American man suspected of fighting with the Taliban and conspiring to kill Americans in Afghanistan, on bail until his trial later this year.

Saying Walker Lindh has repeatedly shown "hostility towards his country," prosecutors responded to Walker Lindh's attorneys, who say their client should be released on bail because he doesn't represent a flight risk and the Justice Department's charges are not strong enough to hold him. They argued that Walker Lindh was fighting against the Northern Alliance -- not the United States -- when taken into U.S. custody in northern Afghanistan in November.

Shortly after Walker Lindh arrived at the federal courthouse in suburban Washington, D.C., prosecutors filed a motion requesting he remain in the custody of the Justice Department, citing e-mails written by the terrorism suspect.

In one he sent to his mother, Walker Lindh asked, "What has America ever done for anybody?" Prosecutors also contended Walker Lindh told members of his family in another e-mail that it was the United States that incited the Gulf War.

Also in the motion, the government cited a Sept. 28, 1998, letter that Walker Lindh wrote to his mother suggesting that the bombings of U.S. Embassies in Africa "seemed far more likely to have been carried out by the American government than by the Muslims."

On Monday, Walker Lindh's attorneys said their client should be released pending trial because, among other things, the Justice Department's charges, based on an FBI affidavit, are so weak that they are "insufficient to establish probable cause for the crimes charged."

Hours later, a federal grand jury handed down a 10-count indictment against Walker Lindh, sometimes called the "American Taliban," which included charges of supporting al-Qaida and conspiring to kill U.S. nationals in Afghanistan.

If Walker Lindh wasn't indicted, prosecutors would have had to present evidence showing probable cause that a crime was committed.