I stirred things up about a month ago with a column on anti-American Americans. By that I meant the 21st century successors to "Hanoi Jane" Fonda, who sided with the enemy during the Vietnam War by pretending to shoot down American planes during a visit to one of her favorite places in the whole world, Hanoi.
And now, we have at least two worthy successors to Ms. Fonda: 20-year-old John Walker (aka Abdul Hamid) of Fairfax, Calif., who fought with the Taliban in Afghanistan, and 54-year-old Sara Jane Olson (aka Kathy Soliah) of St. Paul, Minn., who took part in a failed Symbionese Liberation Army plot to kill Los Angeles policemen during the 1970s. Both of these traitors have earned places in the Jane Fonda Hall of Shame.
First, let's examine the strange case of John Walker, who grew up in affluent Marin County, Calif. His mother, Marilyn Walker, has described him as a "sweet, shy kid" with a pacifist's heart for social justice. And his father, Frank Lindh, told talk show host Larry King that John was an innocent young fellow "who converted to a religion I respect (Islam), and that seemed very healthy and good for him."
"There's no indication he's done anything wrong," Lindh added. Well, in my opinion, these Baby Boomer parents are in total denial.
Walker didn't do anything wrong? Let's see about that. Apparently, he went off to Pakistan to study Islam before the Taliban recruited him "to build a true Islamic state" in Afghanistan. In interviews since his capture at a former Taliban fortress in northern Afghanistan, he has reportedly approved the bombing of the USS Cole and the killing of 17 American sailors because the docking of the ship in Yemen was "an act of war against Islam."
And he has allegedly endorsed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against the World Trade towers in New York, proudly claiming that he had become an al-Qaeda operative in a terrorist war that has already killed nearly 4,000 of his fellow Americans.
As columnist Tony Blankley wrote in the Washington Times, "He (Walker) literally bore arms against our troops in the prisoner-of-war uprising that has, so far, caused the only enemy-inflicted combat death to an American -- former Marine and young CIA officer Mike Span."
I think Walker's despicable actions speak for themselves and that he should be charged with treason and/or murder by federal prosecutors. In the meantime, he's right where he belongs -- alone inside a metal shipping container at a U.S. Marine base just outside Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Walker should be tried in the federal courts, where TV cameras are banned. This will ensure that we're not treated to what Attorney General John Ashcroft called "Osama TV" -- all Osama all the time -- with flamboyant defense attorneys like Johnny Cochran and Alan Dershowitz playing to the cameras and explaining how a poor, misunderstood "boy" was brainwashed by Osama bin Laden.
As Blankley wrote, "Individual acts have moral consequences. If they don't, then we lose our human dignity, which precisely is our capacity and obligation to make moral judgments.... That's why the law must vindicate our values and our dignity by prosecuting traitors." That's exactly right and it's why young Mr. Walker must pay a high price for betraying his country during wartime.
In last Sunday's Appeal, another Washington Times columnist, Diana West, drew a parallel between the Walker case and that of Sara Jane Olson, a Minnesota housewife and mother who turned out to be homegrown terrorist Kathy Soliah, who plotted to kill Los Angeles policemen in 1975. According to West, Ms. Olson/Soliah "has already been dealt the cruelest and most unusual punishment of her life: being forced to take responsibility for her actions."
What a concept! Unfortunately, too many of her fellow Boomers suffer from "Clinton Syndrome," which means never having to say you're sorry and blaming your own problems on others, or on a "corrupt" American society.
"In Olson's day, young revolutionaries suited-up to play at a war they soon tired of," West wrote. "But instead of picking up the pieces and paying for the destruction, they simply moved on." In a truly Clintonian manipulation of the English language, bomb-throwing terrorists were described as "idealistic kids."
A federal judge put an end to that nonsense last month by refusing to allow Ms. Olson to withdraw her guilty plea to a felony charge of possessing bombs with the intent to commit murder. Specifically, she admitted that she and her co-conspirators planned to place bombs under police cars in the Los Angeles area; one of the explosives was described as one of the largest pipe bombs ever built in the United States.
After pleading guilty, however, Olson invented a million excuses for herself, claiming that she was really innocent and acted out of fear of a backlash from jurors at a trial. But Los Angeles Federal Judge Larry Fidler rejected her attempt to withdraw her guilty plea. "She pled guilty because she is guilty," he said before denouncing defense attorneys for saying that Ms. Olson couldn't receive a fair trial because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Although the 28-year-old bomber turned 54-year-old doctor's wife may have grown older, she never grew up. She'll be sentenced on Tuesday.
So the time has arrived for John Walker and Ms. Olson to be held accountable for their murderous actions. Presumably, both of them will have plenty of time to understand this "foreign" concept as they spend the next 20 years, or more, in federal prisons. And that's assuming Walker doesn't receive the death penalty for treason or murder. I expect the sentences to reflect the severity of the crimes committed by these traitors.
Guy W. Farmer, a semi-retired journalist and former U.S. diplomat, resides in Carson City.
