Bush weighs prosecution of American Taliban

WASHINGTON -- President Bush is weighing options for prosecuting a young California man who fought with the Taliban, including one that could spare him the death penalty that is the maximum for treason.

A decision is expected to take a week or more as Bush navigates the delicate legal, military and political ramifications of charging John Walker Lindh, a 20-year-old American who joined forces with the nation's enemy.

"This is an extraordinary set of circumstances, to have an American who apparently was engaged in armed combat against the United States of America," said Ari Fleischer, White House spokesman. "There are people who have to be talked to, to determine what took place. There could be witnesses. So that's why it requires a lot of information-gathering."

The legal landscape for prosecuting Lindh "is as forbidding as Afghanistan, rocky and hazardous and equally ill-charted," said Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice in Washington, and a lawyer who regularly practices before military courts.

The choices range from charges of providing support to terrorists, which carries a 15-year sentence or life imprisonment if it resulted in a death, to treason, which carries a maximum of the death penalty, officials said.

Other possibilities: conspiracy or even murder charges, if there's evidence that Lindh had anything to do with the killing of a CIA agent who interrogated him. So far there's no evidence of that. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty and the punishment for murder would range from 10 years to execution.

Another option would be to try Lindh before a court martial as a prisoner of war. Or authorities could attempt to prosecute him before a secret military tribunal, but that is more complicated because it would first require revoking Lindh's U.S. citizenship.

Attorney General John Ashcroft has discussed with Bush some options. Bush is also receiving advice from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who has urged the president to go slow in making a decision, according to government officials who requested anonymity.

A law enforcement official familiar with the discussions, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said that while treason remains on the table officials have expressed concerns about some of the technical requirements of proving the charge. They include the need for two witnesses to each act of treason which may be hard to find in Afghanistan, the official said.

There have been only 30 treason cases prosecuted in American history; few have ended in convictions.