JW may be a poor besotted misguided soul led astray by a "cult." Problem is...one can probably make the same argument about 90% of the terrorists in the world and most of the Taliban. Misquided, mixed up or not, we each of us have to be responsible for the choices we make. In this country we are legally accountable by age 18 in most instances. I haven't followed this story very closely, but I am not aware that Mr. Walker has expressed any sense of having been misquided and in fact said that he ultimately supported the 9-11 attacks.

I actually don't have an opinion about what should happen with him (at least for now.) I was unaware there were possibly two more Americans, but I think Rick asks a very good question re: will they receive different consideration (not just from the government but also from the talking heads and in other public discussion) if they are not ethnic WASPS?