Well here goes another stone. OK so the guy ( I refuse to cal him a kid as he is above the age of consent and an adult) converts to Islam and goes of to Afghanistan or wherever he went off to first and then Lo and behold he's in the middle of a war fighting against his former countrymen and their allies. The difference between smoking a little pot and taking up arms against others is a little wide to come into the same sphere as this ( even if it did constitute a long prison term at the time). Consciously joining an armed force and lifting up your weapons against YOUR country is treason. I was on the perifery of similar thoughts many years ago ( in the UK and the terrorists at the time were the iRA) though I sympathised with their cause, I did NOT sympathise with their means and always felt that a peaceful, political solution was the only way forward. The question with this man is the fact that he willingly went to war to defend HIS (adopted) country and HIS faith. I haven't seen Muhammed Ali taking up arms, is he not also a moslem? The example drawn with Jim Jones os another thing altogether, this was a cult ( along with those other idiots that topped themselves across the wold, including Waco which is a whole other story). This is an organised religion. What right has John Walker got as an American citizen? None. Because he renounced it just as I have renounced my British citizenship. He chose to become what he is just as I have. He is an Afghan and should be treated as such. But ishe a terrorist? I think that this is the question we are all missing.