YOU ARE HERE: LAT HomeCollectionsLos Angeles  Young American
Taliban Captured  December 06, 2001  Re "American Taliban Took
Odd Route," Dec. 4: John Walker, the American who was captured
in Afghanistan fighting for the Taliban, should be treated like
any other prisoner of war. His father said that his son is a
sweet and devout person--what a laugh that is. This devout and
sweet bird of youth was willing to die and kill many U.S.
soldiers and innocent people for his newfound country and
fiends, oops, I mean friends.  Tony Barone  Huntington Beach
The discussion over whether to place 20-year-old Walker on trial
for treason is distracting people from what's significant about
this story. If this idealistic American could leave his home in
Northern California and infiltrate the deepest levels of Islamic
extremism in just a few months, why is it that the CIA with all
of its vast resources and super-spying technologies couldn't
figure out how to accomplish the same mission?  Had Walker been
a U.S. operative, he mig