User talk:Literotaur

Hello, you changed the description of John Lindh's meeting with bin Laden to state he was attending a lecture. However, the original indictment states:

"13. In or about June or July 2001, LINDH met personally with Bin Laden, who thanked him and other trainees for taking part in jihad."

While he may have given a lecture before or after thanking Lindh and other foreign fighters for their service, I don't feel re-wording it was necessary. Response? (I'm not going to go ahead and change it back, I'd just like to hear what you have to say to this first). Thanks.--jlcoving (talk) 16:58, 28 November 2008 (UTC)

Hi jlcoving, Your reference to the February 2002 correct indictment is a good one, but Isay's book The Dark Side (as referenced in my footnote) contains source material gathered after the indictment was issued.

Isay specifies that Lindh spoke with Tamara Sonn (of the College of William and Mary) in preparation for his defense, and Sonn clarifies that Lindh attended a lecture (at which he fell asleep) rather than met Bin Laden in person. I think this distinction is essential because the notion of "meeting personally" is obviously different than that of attending a group lecture. If I stated that I'd met Barack Obama personally during his post-election speech, then you'd assume we met one-one-one afterward, and not that I was just in the crowd in Grant Park.

Also, note that nine of the ten counts in the indictment were dropped in July 2002, and Lindh was convicted only of "providing services to the Taliban." (To be honest, citing the discredited indictment as the sole reference on some points at all makes me vaguely uncomfortable, but that's beside the point right now.)

If you can find a reference outside the indictment that makes clear Lindh met Bin Laden in person, then obviously I'd be in favor of changing this back.

Regards,

Literotaur (talk) 00:25, 29 November 2008 (UTC)