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March 17, 2002, San Francisco Chronicle, Justice / Jim Jones' son and John Walker Lindh / Blame it on the youth: Our surrogate bin Laden, by Peter Keane,

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March 17, 2002, San Francisco Chronicle, Justice / Jim Jones' son and John Walker Lindh / Blame it on the youth: Our surrogate bin Laden, by Peter Keane,

Human nature demands that when we are harmed there be someone to blame and punish. If we can't find the one who directly causes the injury, we look for a substitute. But someone must pay.

This is what the prosecution of John Walker Lindh, and the entire national clamor for his head, is all about.

If we had Osama bin Laden in captivity, Lindh would be just a tiny newspaper item back near the used car ads. Instead, he serves as our surrogate bin Laden.

We have seen this search for scapegoats before.

Many people have forgotten the horrendous People's Temple massacre in Guyana in November 1978, when crazed preacher Jim Jones ordered more than 900 of his followers to commit suicide and then died himself of a gunshot wound.

Back in the United States, shock and outrage were quickly followed by the demand that someone be held accountable. But everyone responsible was dead.

A small group of People's Temple members survived, including the cult's basketball team, which had been miles away in Georgetown, Guyana's capital. When the survivors returned to this country a few weeks later, more than 100 federal agents surrounded their plane. The exhausted, emotionally numb band was abusively interrogated and threatened for more than 20 hours by FBI agents in a hangar at Kennedy International Airport. Then they were given subpoenas to appear before a federal grand jury in San Francisco.

One of the basketball players wasTim Jones, the 20-year-old adopted son of Jim Jones. At 16, Tim had married another teenage Temple member. They had three children and loved each other very much. Tim's wife and kids died in one big heartbreaking mound of bodies at Jonestown.

I was appointed by federal JudgeRobert Peckham to represent Tim before the grand jury. News accounts had portrayed the survivors as ruthless and dangerous. The basketball team was described as Jim Jones' "henchmen and bodyguards." That all was preposterous.

When Tim Jones first came to my office, I spent the entire day listening to a totally lost young kid. I don't remember if they yet had coined the term "posttraumatic stress disorder" in 1978, but Tim was its poster boy.

Tim was the first witness scheduled to appear before the grand jury. When he and I drove up to the federal courthouse in my 1969 Volkswagen, we saw the building surrounded by news media from everywhere in the world. This was to be the first public look at someone "responsible" for the tragedy. We pushed our way through the mob as people stabbed cameras and microphones in our faces.

Tim spent several hours before the grand jury being worked over by federal prosecutors. After a while, they eased up. They had expected Darth Vader but instead got a baby-faced kid who only shaved twice a week. Finally, they told him to go home.

When it became clear the survivors would not be charged, there was frustration and resentment. Who else was there to punish for the terrible things that had happened?

The memory of Tim keeps coming back as I hear more about John Walker Lindh. I have scrutinized all the accounts of Lindh's conduct in Afghanistan. I have studied the laws he is charged with violating. I have examined the laundry list of charges the government has duct-taped together. And I can't find any crime Lindh committed.

So, why the difference in the treatment of Tim Jones and Lindh? Perhaps because 9/11 was an even more horrific tragedy than Jonestown. Or maybe we have become a people who need scapegoats more now than ever.

stevenwarran

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on Jul 17, 13