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CNN Live Saturday

American Who Fought for the Taliban Is Being Held at a Marine Base in Afghanistan

Aired December 08, 2001 - 17:04   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: And we have more now on John Walker. He's the young American who fought with the Taliban. His long, strange odyssey in Afghanistan is starting a new chapter now. This one, unfolding at a U.S. Marine base near Kandahar, where he's been held.

Here's Rick Leventhal with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICK LEVENTHAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Camp Rhino is home to more than 1,300 Marines in the Afghanistan desert. It's also now the temporary home of John Walker, the 20-year-old American who turned against his country and joined the Taliban, and was later involved in the prison revolt in Mazar-e-Sharif, that left hundreds dead, including CIA field officer Mike Spann the first U.S. battlefield casualty in this war.

DAVID RONLEY, CAPTAIN, MARINE SPOKESMAN: John Walker is being held here for his own protection. And he'll be transferred to U.S. civilian authorities as soon as possible.

LEVANTHAL: After the prison uprising, Walker told reporters he'd been a student in Pakistan studying Islam, and came in contact with people connected with the Taliban. He decided to join the cause, traveling across the border to help build a pure Islamic state. He says he received combat training at a camp in northern Afghanistan, run by supporters of Osama bin Laden, then joined the battle, before surrendering to Northern Alliance forces in Konduz on November 24th.

He was questioned by Spann the next day, just hours before joining in the bloody prison revolt that led to the agent's death. Walker's mother has described her son as a sweet, shy kid who went to Pakistan to help the poor. If that was his agenda, it clearly changed and he picked the wrong side in this war. Soon he'll have to answer for that fatal decision.

With the Marines in southern Afghanistan, I'm Rick Leventhal.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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