My Heart Became Attached: The Strange Journey of John Walker Lindh

by Mark Kukis

Book Overview

What would cause an otherwise intelligent, well-educated, and, by all accounts, privileged Californian to forgo an easy life in the United States to struggle for survival in a land of strife and mortal danger? With this question in mind, journalist Mark Kukis retraces the personal and spiritual evolution of the most reviled American traitor since Lee Harvey Oswald. "My Heart Became Attached provides a detailed biographical account of John Walker...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1574887599
• ISBN13: 9781574887594
• Release Date: July 2008
• Publisher: Potomac Books
• Length: 220 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.8" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Lindh's odyssey.....

The controversial story of John Walker Lindh is well-researched in this book. While the author was unable to speak with Lindh or his parents, he travelled to distant lands such as Yemen and Pakistan to interview people who met, studied, and trained with Lindh. The author remains relatively objective in his treatment of Lindh, neither condemning nor commending him. After reading this book, Lindh comes across as a sincere and thoughtful, albeit naive Muslim, perhaps swept up in the momentum of where his new found religion took him. After 9/11, many people will be outraged by the suggestion that Lindh was anything but a cold-blooded terrorist, especially since he was present when CIA agent Mike Spann was killed. Personally, I think the situation is far more complicated than that. I think that Mr. Spann was a true patriot who died defending the country he loved, but at the same time, I see Lindh as a sincere Muslim who thought he was defending the religion he loved. Who am I to say which one is superior? Also, I have to ask, if Lindh never joined the Taliban, and was not present that fateful day in Afghanistan, would Mike Spann still be alive? I'm afraid the answer is no. With that said, the author points out that only Lindh himself knows his true motives and intentions. I would have liked to learn a little more about Lindh's pre-Muslim days, but overall I found the book compelling and informative.

American Taliban--Ordinary Teenager

Mark Kukis, the author of "My Heart Became Attached," tells what ends up being a rather pedestrian story about a young American who briefly gained notoriety as the "American Taliban" after 9/11. John Walker Lindh is the son of middle class parents who grew up in a comfortable household around Washington, DC and then in the San Francisco suburbs. Lindh, like many teenagers curious about the world and trying to find himself, develops a teenagers interest in Islam and the Arab world. Lindh converted to Islam in his late teens and, with a convert's zeal, throws himself into studying the language, culture and religion of the Arab/Muslim world. His first visit to the region was a trip to Yemen to study Islam and Arabic. After a brief trip back to the US, Lindh follows a friend he met at a local mosque to Pakistan. While there Lindh begins studying with more extreme and violent interpreters of his religion. He eventually found himself in a training camp for young Jihadists. The best of the camp's graduates were sent to fight in Indian held Kashmir. However, Lindh was determined to be too weak and poor as a soldier and was thus encouraged to go to Afghanistan. Lindh arrived in Afghanistan in the late summer of 2001. He trained at an al-Qaeda camp frequented by Osama bin Laden, and sat through what he thought were many boring bin laden lectures. He was then sent to the front lines of the Taliban's battle against the Northern Alliance. After 9/11 and American firepower was inserted into the conflict on behalf of the Alliance, Lindh and his comrades were quickly taken prisoner and sent to a makeshift prison at Mazar-i-Sharif. When a group of prisoners began a rebellion against their captors, Lindh escaped to the relative safety of a nearby cellar. However, he did briefly share the field with CIA officer Mike Spann, shortly before Taliban rebels murdered Spann. After the riot was finally quelled a week later, Lindh was taken by his American captors into custody, but not before a CNN crew could film the one interview that launched the infamy of the "American Taliban." The author was unable to interview Lindh for this book. He was, however, able to track down nearly everyone who came into contact with Lindh during his journey from suburbanite to Taliban. The story he tells is of a kid who stumbles from one place to another, somehow finding himself in bin Laden's audience and on the Taliban front line. That this could happen to such an ordinary American kid is the true lesson of this brief, but excellent, book.

Very Informative Page Turner

Kukis keeps you turning the pages on this well written biography of the American enigma which is "John Walker Lindh".Kukis daringly retraced Lindh's steps through the unforgiving hotbed of madrassas and dusty towns in the middle east to deliver an excellent recount of what happenned to this unique young adult. Kukis's interviews of those closest to Lindh in his final months before capture really gives you an insight to a world much different than Lindh's United States.This is a must-read for anyone who enjoys keeping abreast with current events as well as those who wish to peer into the mind of one of the most notorious 9-11 figures.

An Incredible Odyssey

Mark Kukis has done what few authors have the nerve -- or skill -- to do: explored Lindh's path from American student to Taliban fighter by actually following in Lindh's footsteps. Along the way, Kukis vividly describes the places and personalities that shaped Lindh's transformation. Unfortunately, the Lindh family declined an interview with Kukis to tell their side of the story. However, Mr. Kukis does not let this setback interfere with his narrative, instead depicting Lindh as seen by people in Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan -- a richer, more accurate and more rewarding depiction than would likely have emerged from an interview with the Lindh family in the comfortable confines of their California living room.In the end, Kukis leaves deliberately unanswered the central question in the Lindh paradox. Is John Walker Lindh a hapless American kid who made some really bad choices in finding himself -- the kind of bad choices many of us have made in life, only with drastically worse consequences? Or is he a cold and calculating zealot pledged to jihad against those he perceives as non-believers? The answer is ultimately locked away in Lindh's mind as securely as Lindh himself is incarcerated, but Mark Kukis has done an excellent job in literally walking in Lindh's footsteps to try to find that answer.

traitor or confused kid?

Since John Walker Lindh first made news, I've been waiting for someone to do a serious examination into what caused this boy to fight for the Taliban. Mark Kukis has done exactly that. Kukis has a very smooth and flowing writing style; I finished this book in only a couple of days. The book offers much insight into Walker's character, without drawing absolute conclusions about his guilt or innocence. The reader is left to make his or her own judgment on that issue. I would highly recommend this book.