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Good overview by Graeme Wood who discovers that Lindh has changed teams from AQ to IS. That's a Russian Tartar in the pic btw not John Walker Lindh. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
Lindh was with bin Laden's al Ansar or the 055 Brigade split into four units. Lindh's unit fought at Khwaja Ghar (Taloqan/Khanabad) His Afghan commander was Mullah Thaker. Al Qaeda officers like Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi ran the the al-Farooq training camp outside Kandahar. ©RYP 
The 055 Brigade was created by bin Laden in 1996 manned with Arab speaking volunteers trapped in Afghanistan. Juma Namangani's Uzbek fighters also joined to create a 1000 man shock unit for the talibs. Bin Laden hired Saudis to lead the mercenaries. Lindh is in the back. ©RYP
They needed shock troops because the ISI recruits had zero military skills and used numbers to try to dislodge Northern Alliance fighters. Mostly poor rural illiterate men from Pakistan or Afghan villages. Here are the taliban circa 2001 Photo © RYP
Hamoud al Aqla al Shuebi issued a fatwa in 2000 telling Muslims to go to Afghanistan. They were told they needed training before so they Bin Laden would sent the raw recruits to fight in Kashmir and Afghanistan. If you survived you went back for more training and deployment. ©RYP
Most of the captured Arab would insist they were fooled, tricked into going to the camp and never fired their gun. Bin Laden replicated from the Afghan jihad in the 80's when he funded Palestinian Abdullah Azzam in Peshawar. Bin Laden ran bulldozers and posed for photos in Jaji.
Cultists like Azzam "father of jihad" and Anwar al-Awlaki work with financial backers to market jihad to young muslims and bring them into the cult. Once in the cult they cannot leave. That is why they are taught that death is their reward. John Walker Lindh knows this. @RYP
Lindh wanted to be Shahid or killed. "Allah chooses the time" he told me. No American ordnance chooses the time. This is Lindh's Saudi boss Abdul Aziz when I found him. One of Bin Laden's 055 commanders. ©RYP
