Baloney, claiming Al Jazeera has links to Hamas, that's like saying CNN has a connection with the Tea Party. Hamas hates AJ, they call it "liberal media." Saddam Hussain's minions called it "pro-American anti-Saddam propaganda." (remember Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf making a fool of himself during the start of the Iraq war?) It's a secular channel, if you actually watch it they are more Fair and Balanced than Fox News.

I'm surprised you're so dismissive. I don't think facebook campaigners are saying to get rid of the first amendment; merely to oppose this pastor and the act. Nobody ever said Terry Jones didn't have a constitutional right to it (better than the most but not all Park51 opponents who conceded the likewise point)

According to Lindh's father's speech, Lindh believed the two CIA agents were working for the war criminal General Dostum, which is why he remained silent. Sounds like the kid is innocent.

I had expected better of Mr. Pelton. Lindh never attacked America. He tried to involve himself in the Afghan civil war, the same way Americans joined the Spanish civil war, or Americans who legally supported rebels in the Sudan civil war. He only spoke Arabic and English, but signed up and fought in the summer of 2001, because he involved himself in the Afghan situation. Nobody foresaw American involvement, and certainly not him. He wasn't "the kind of person we wanted to kill in Afghanistan." Lindh "chose to stay?" What was he going to do, call a cab? The N.A. were boxing him in, Kunduz was 2 days walk, and there were bandits on the roads. The US was bombing by October 7, there was nowhere he could go. Pelton's description of the prison uprising flies in the face of all other accounts of the incident, and the other timelines I heard. There was an active firefight, it seemed spontaneous to me, with no signs of coordination amongst the prisoners (why else was Lindh shot while running, most likely away from the explosion). General Dostum's men were known for their brutality and Pelton claims Lindh didn't jump out and wave at the camera and tell how American he is. Lindh even claimed to be Irish, by Pelton's admission, "to avoid trouble." For the last time, Lindh was NOT Al Qaeda. Just because he spoke Arabic doesn't mean he was affiliated with Bin Laden. The name "Ansar" comes from the Soviet Occupation days, back when the US supported it. Not every Ansar became Al Qaeda, and many actual Ansaris denounced Bin Laden. What survivors did Pelton interview? Lindh was suspected of being the sole survivor, the Northern Alliance had this nasty habit of killing POWs. If Pelton was in possession of all this information, how come he never testified for either side? Pelton told us his unlikely suspicion, but failed to prove how Lindh could possibly have saved Spann's life. He said he had no prior knowledge of the attack, and I'm quite positive someone who smuggled grenades couldn't trust either his fellow prisoners or being overheard. Even if Lindh knew, what could he have said to Spann to save his life? "Get out of here?" Go watch the CNN interview of Lindh, it's still on their website. I see an injured man talking in bed slowly and in pain. I see NO arrogance or rudeness. Show me a trace of arrogance in the video or transcript. He answered every question you gave in the video, how is that unhelpful? Yes he is unrepentant for choosing to fight in a civil war, based on the knowledge that he knew. He denounced the Taliban later at his trial, so I don't see the kind of evil intent that Pelton is accusing him of. Pelton doesn't seem to care what the Marines did to him. During the Abu Ghraib scandal, details emerged about Lindh's treatment: Immediately afterwards, he was taken by Green Berets and interrogated. The office of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld instructed the military intelligence officers to "take the gloves off" in interrogating him. He told them everything he knew, since they told him he could save American lives if he did. They blindfolded him and tied and chained him up, wrote "shithead" on his blindfold, and snapped pictures, some also of soldiers posing with him. They taunted him, told him that they were going to kill him, and continually threatened to shoot him. Another told Mr. Lindh that he was ‘going to hang’ for his actions and that after he was dead, the soldiers would sell the photographs and give the money to a Christian organization.” When they brought him to the military base, they cut off his clothes and duct taped him naked to a stretcher, and took more pictures of him. They locked him in a metal shipping container, shivering. Finally they gave him blankets, but wrapped them so tight that they pinned his arms down. They left him like that for two days in a windowless metal crate, and tried to serve him pork. The soldiers refused to untie him, and would tip the stretcher to the side sometimes so he could relieve himself. According to court papers, they interrogated him while in that position, and denied his requests for a lawyer. His responses to interrogators were cabled to Washington hourly. The US denies torturing him, but they did forcefully interrogate him and admit to using “sleep deprivation, cold and hunger” to get him to reveal anything he knew about the Taliban, Al Qaeda, or Osama Bin Laden. Pelton doesn't care, and judging by his attitude, seems to think that "it could have been worse" makes it all OK. Sheesh. I used to have a lot of respect for Pelton after watching the interview, but this took it away.