John Walker Lindh: 'American Taliban' released from US prison amid fears he remains security risk

Leaked government documents describe 38-year-old as holding 'extremist views' as recently as 2016

John Walker Lindh is seen during an interview soon after his capture in 2001 (CNN via AP)

A man who became known as the “American Taliban” after he was captured on a battlefield in Afghanistan in 2001 has been released from prison.

Some politicians fear John Walker Lindh, 38, remains a security risk as left a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, on probation after serving 17 years of his 20-year sentence, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons.

Footage showing a bearded and wounded Lindh being captured among Taliban fighters created an international sensation at the time.

He has since spent more than 17 years in prison after pleading guilty to providing support to the Taliban.

But leaked US government documents published by Foreign Policy magazine show the federal government described Lindh as holding “extremist views” as recently as 2016.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo called Lindh’s release “unexplainable and unconscionable”.

“There’s something deeply troubling and wrong about it,” he said on Fox News on Thursday morning.

Several politicians have expressed concerns over why Lindh was freed early and asked questions about what training parole officers had to spot radicalisation among former jihadists.

“What is the current interagency policy, strategy, and process for ensuring that terrorist/extremist offenders successfully reintegrate into society?” US senators Richard Shelby and Margaret Hassan asked in a letter to the Federal Bureau of Prisons in May.

Lindh was present when a group of Taliban prisoners launched an attack that killed Johnny Michael “Mike” Spann, a CIA officer who had been investigating Lindh and other Taliban prisoners.

He eventually struck a plea bargain in which he admitted illegally providing support to the Taliban, but denied a role in Spann’s death.

His probation officer asked the court to impose additional restrictions on Lindh while he remains on supervised release for the next three years.

Lindh initially opposed but eventually accepted the restrictions, which include monitoring software on his internet devices; requiring his online communications to be conducted in English and that he undergo mental health counselling; and forbidding him from possessing or viewing extremist material, holding a passport of any kind or leaving the US.

Lindh’s behaviour in prison has reportedly been a cause for concern.

Though he told the court he condemned “terrorism on every level” and attacks by al-Qaeda leader Osama bin-Laden were “completely against Islam”, a January 2017 report by the US government’s National Counterterroism Center, published by Foreign Policy, said as of May 2016 Lindh “continued to advocate for global jihad and to write and translate violent extremist texts”.