Investigative Reports - Two Young Americans: The Patriot and the Taliban [A&E] (2003)

September 8, 2003

Follow the paths that led two young men to meet as adversaries in an Afghan prison. The encounter lasted just a few minutes. John Walker Lindh, the "American Taliban," knelt in the dust, his arms bound behind his back, refusing to speak. CIA special agent Mike Spann crouched before him, warning Lindh that the price for not cooperating could be death. But it was Spann who met his end in the Afghan prison, murdered when the Taliban prisoners revolted, and Lindh survived to become one of the most widely recognized figures from the initial battle in the war on terror. INVESTIGATIVE REPORT traces the paths that brought these two young American men to their unlikely meeting half a world away from their homeland. In cooperation with The New York Times, TWO AMERICAN BOYS answers many of the questions surrounding Lindh's embrace of a cause that stands starkly opposed to the values that Spann gave his life to defend.