First Casualty tells the story of the first CIA mission in Afghanistan after 9/11 and reveals how Mike Spann, America's first casualty of the war, was killed in a prisoner revolt. It was published by Little Brown this week
Four special forces operators crowd around their prize for a team photograph.
John Walker Lindh, already known as the 'American Taliban' in headlines, is bound and blindfolded. A soldier has offered a different nickname written in marker on duct tape across his eyes: 'Shit head.'
The photograph set off a scandal amid allegations of prisoner abuse when its existence was revealed in 2002. But it can now be seen for the first time almost 20 years later with publication of a new book about the early weeks of the U.S. war in Afghanistan.
In First Casualty: The Untold Story of the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11, author Toby Harnden reveals how Lindh was captured after hundreds of Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners launched a prison revolt.
Lindh was eventually brought to trial in U.S. federal court and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
He was released in May 2019 and is believed to be living in Virginia. It was revealed that in 2015 he had become a supporter of the Islamic State and praised them for beheading Americans, saying the terrorists had done 'a spectacular job.'
But it was the images of him after his capture - when his dishevelled, bearded figure was caught on video - that triggered a sensation around the world, and anger in America at how a 20-year-old from Northern California could have ended up among the ranks of extremists in Afghanistan.
He was the first American to face charges in the war on terror. And his treatment foreshadowed allegations of prisoner abuse and ritual humiliation that dogged American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Special forces pose with the 'American Taliban' John Walker Lindh shortly after his capture in November 2001. They had written 'S*** head' on duct tape stuck to his blindfold, triggering an investigation when details emerged. The image has never been seen in public until now
Lindh converted to Islam as a teenager after seeing the film Malcolm X and went overseas to study Arabic and the Quran. He eventually traveled to Pakistan before crossing the border into Afghanistan. He was among about 400 Taliban and Al Qaeda forces who surrendered to the U.S.-allied Northern Alliance in November 2001
Pictures of the high-value prisoner were taken by members of the 5th Special Forces Group as they prepared him to be transported from Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan to Camp Rhino, near Kandahar in the south. He was the first American prisoner in the war on terror
Harnden describes how his return to the U.S. began in November 2001.
Small teams of CIA agents and Green berets were working with anti-Taliban forces of the Northern Alliance to oust an extremist government that harbored Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda during the run-up to the 9/11 attacks.
Lindh was among hundreds of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters who surrendered to the Northern Alliance.
But the surrender was a ruse and they launched an uprising, killing CIA paramilitary officer Mike Spann - the first American casualty of what would become a 20-year war.
Lindh, then 20, was among 86 Al Qaeda prisoners who survived what became known as the Battle of Qala-i Jangi.
Spann had questioned Lindh before the revolt. American officers nicknamed him 'the Irishman' after another prisoner had told them he had claimed to be from Ireland.
Lindh remained silent throughout.
It was only after the uprising was put down and Spann was dead that Lindh told a doctor he was American, apparently in an effort to be treated more humanely.
He was held at a Turkish-built school that was used by a small detachment of American special forces and CIA officers.
Pictures of him were taken just before being taken to a C-130 cargo plane bound
