U.S. Military: American Fighting for ISIS 'Surrenders'

[DonViejo]

The U.S. citizen fighting for ISIS was captured in Syria, a well-placed source told The Beast. It’ll be a crucial test for the Trump administration on handling wartime detentions.

BETSY WOODRUFF
SPENCER ACKERMAN
09.14.17 10:30 AM ET

Multiple spokespersons for the U.S. military have told The Daily Beast that they are aware of reports that an American fighting in Syria for the so-called Islamic State has been taken into custody.

A source familiar with the situation told The Daily Beast that the American was captured by Kurdish forces. Both of the spokespeople indicated that the fighter “surrendered.”

In either case, the detention of an American fighting for ISIS on an active battlefield would set up a major decision for Donald Trump about the future of wartime captures.

According to The Daily Beast’s source, the U.S. citizen was initially taken into custody by the Syrian Democratic Forces, the mostly Kurdish local proxy that the American military is using to fight ISIS on the ground in Syria. That source said the Kurds then turned the captive over to American forces. It is not clear where the American is currently being held.

Neither the U.S. military command overseeing the war against ISIS nor the Justice Department, which plays a substantial role in deciding what to do with U.S. citizen detainees, are disputing this reporting.

more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/us-military-american-isis-fighter-reportedly-surrenders

[LittleBlue]

1. Give him to the Iraqi government, charge him with murder and hang him

He's a genocidal scumbag. No remorse or mercy.

[cloudbase]

2. Interrogate him,

then turn him back over to the Kurds.

[linuxman]

3. Captured in Syria? Question him humanely, then give him to the Syrians.

He's harmed them more than us. Let them sort it out.

[Vogon_Glory]

4. No sympathy for the little cherub

I have as little sympathy for this cherub as I would have had for an American caught fighting for the Nazi Waffen SS three generations ago. Let him face interrogation and, if sufficient evidence appears, a court of Justice for his war crimes.

[maxsolomon]

5. Let Trump execute him on live TV!

Jeezus, this thread is bloodthirsty. We know shit about this dude.

[Vogon_Glory]

6. Why are we lacking in pity? Because in my case

I never had the knee-jerk belief of certain Far left liberals that anyone opposed to "American Imperialism" is Ipso-facto a pure and stainless warrior worthy of a space in some stained-glass shrine to the righteous.

ISIS has committed what are considered war crimes and atrocities in the territories it controlled. If this purported US citizen participated in such war crimes, why should his victims be deprived of justice?

[maxsolomon]

7. Please name these "Far Left Liberals"

You seem to know all about what they'd think about an American ISIL member.

I never said "pity". Straw Man hyperbole.

[Vogon_Glory]

8. A lot of the Marxists of the sorts who

Last edited Thu Sep 14, 2017, 11:34 PM - Edit history (1)

jumped on anyone who condemned the Khmer Rouge and accused them of being tools of "anti-progressives."

Yes, I know about the sins of the West. But I don't think the evil practiced by other cultures should be ignored merely because they're anti-western.

You're a progressive, right? Surely you aren't endorsing genocide and religious persecution, ethnic and religious pogroms, forcibly requiring women to wear burquas, or people who practice so-called "honor killings," are you?

[maxsolomon]

11. no, i'm not endorsing ISIL.

in fact I am often accused of anti-muslim bias on DU because I regularly assert that hijab is Misogyny even if Muslim women want to wear it.

you still didn't name anyone.

[Vogon_Glory]

14. David Dellinger was one of the more prominent examples

Of pro-Khmer Rouge support and the if-they-aren't-American-imperialists-they-must-be-the-good-guys mindset, a grave error of judgement right-wingers and jumped on.


I still have as little support for non-local ISIS fighters who went to Iraq and Syria to fight "infidels"as I do for those Western Europeans who flocked to join the Nazi SS during World War II to "fight Bolshevism."

It is my hope that some of the former group will be tried in international courts and sentenced to serve serious time in cells previously occupied by the latter.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

10. I don't want him executed,

But westerners who join groups like ISIS and the Taliban need to be tried for treason should they find their way home.

[maxsolomon]

12. Agreed.

although I'd argue that John Walker Lindh's sentence (20 years) was absurd, considering that the Taliban were not our enemy at the time.

but America hates Latte-sipping, Volvo-driving Marin County Hot Tubbers more than anything, so he had to be made an example of.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

15. I don't think a shit kicker from rural Texas would have been treated any less harshly

Lindh can go to hell, he knew what the Taliban was. Their atrocities were on the evening news for most of the 1990s.

[maxsolomon]

16. even before that, when they were our allies

against the Comnists in Afghanistan.

I think a shit kicker from rural texas WOULD have been treated less harshly. or at least wouldn't have become the Liberal-bashing cudgel that Lindh became.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

17. What the hell is liberal about serving an islamic terrorist state?

Any US national found hanging out with that bunch was in for some rough treatment.

That piece of shit was born in 1981, he is a little young to have heard the call to support the mujaheddin.

[maxsolomon]

18. His librul, permissive upbringing was attacked, & blamed for his terrible choices

did you miss all that? the whole shut-up-hippies-we'll-protect-America run up to the Iraq Invasion? the flag-waving jingoism? the maudlin self-pity of conservatives who otherwise hated NYC? when 90% of America was in favor of committing war crimes? when all of DU were basically voices in the wilderness, accurately predicting an endless war?

here's his latte-sipping, hot-tubbing father's account, from '06: http://www.alternet.org/story/31211/the_real_story_of_john_walker_lindh/

I had forgotten that he got 20 years or "violating economic sanctions".

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

19. I didn't miss it, I recall Ann Coulter was relentless but I still don't care

Lindh joined the Taliban, my interest in his well being beyond preferring he not be executed is non-existent.

Just what the hell they're going to do with this guy when he is released will be interesting to see as he remains an unrepentant terrorist.

[maxsolomon]

20. "Unrepentant"? Do you mean this article from 2012?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/us/indiana-man-who-aided-taliban-says-his-right-to-prayer-is-denied.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FLindh%2C%20John%20Walker&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=collection

I couldn't find anything else about his actions in prison.

I suppose he's unrepentant in that he's still Muslim. I don't think he'll get out until he's served his full sentence of 20 years. Who'd parole him, let alone pardon him, prior to that?

[GulfCoast66]

9. Give him to the controlling government..

Kurds, Iraqi, Syrian or back to the ISIS folks he tried to defect from.

I do not support the death penalty. But I do not support this son of a bitch using his American citizenship to get special privileges that everyone else in that conflict do not get.

You make your bed, then sleep in it. Guantánamo Bay is too good for this guy. And I want to shut it down!

[maxsolomon]

13. Well, too bad

I don't believe he'd be extradited to a nation that will execute him. Trump would love to, but he'll settle for pinning him on Democrats once Fox News explains how.