Freedom for Lindh?

Re “Free our Talib,” editorial, July 29

Your editorial advocating the freeing of John Walker Lindh was disgusting. Lindh chose his fate when he refused to identify himself to his American captors, and then when he refused to warn his American interrogators of the impending prisoner attack in the Afghan prison. He is as responsible for the death of CIA operative Johnny “Mike” Spann as the terrorists who shot Spann. Lindh should have been sentenced to death for that. He did not get a sufficient prison sentence. Commuting his sentence would be perverse and an insult to the CIA officers who risk their lives on behalf of America.

Bruce Geryk

Champaign, Ill.

Lindh broke the law. But “the American Taliban” wasn’t a terrorist and deserves clemency.

Larry Taylor

Alta Loma

There are no words that can truly express the outrage I felt while reading your editorial. I was stunned to read this line: (Lindh’s) “commitment to Islam leads him to oppose the targeting of civilians.”

Really.

So exactly what was the religion of the 9/11 terrorists who killed about 3,000 civilians that day, or the religion of all of those suicide bombers who are killing scores of civilians in Iraq now? I’m sorry, but that particular argument falls flat. Lindh made his bed when he joined an Islamic terrorist organization -- and the Taliban has been just that since its inception -- and he can rot in it for the rest of his life as far as I am concerned.

Richard Paolinelli

Turlock, Calif.