John Walker Lindh, an American who fought on the side of the jihadists in Afghanistan both before and after 9/11, was released from prison earlier today. In late 2001, Lindh and his fellow fighters surrendered to the Northern Alliance and were transported to the Qala-i Janghi prison near Mazar-e Sharif. The CIA’s Johnny “Mike” Spann questioned Lindh shortly before a bloody uprising inside the prison. Spann was killed during the insurrection.

Lindh was quickly dubbed the “American Taliban” after he was taken into U.S. custody. But that is somewhat of a misnomer. While Lindh admittedly fought alongside the Taliban, he did so as part of al Qaeda’s primary combat arm in pre-9/11 Afghanistan.

No, Lindh did not volunteer to commit a terrorist attack in the West. He was certainly no terrorist mastermind, or even a dispatched operative, when American forces detained him. But al Qaeda was never just about terrorism — a key fact that is still not widely understood. In Afghanistan and elsewhere, al Qaeda has devoted most of its resources, since its founding, to warfare. And it was in that capacity Lindh chose to serve.

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