[Nic Name]

With regard to Walker, I find it strange that the American public is almost universally confident in the President's administration to prosecute the war on terrorism, but can't seem to trust them to prosecute one citizen properly.

Every Tom, Dick and Harry wants to weigh in with a talkshow conviction and a sentence for John Walker, without any facts other than CNN soundbytes. If nothing else, any thinking person has to acknowledge that the FBI, CIA, DoD and President know quite a bit more than the man on the street about Walker from their interrogations, and have decided that this is the way to proceed.

If the government can't be trusted to make this decision flawlessly, then why should they be trusted to decide which nation to attack next?

For all anyone knows, Walker could be a valuable CIA operative, whose cover it is essential to preserve. Maybe the video interviews with CNN where he openly espoused support for the Taleban, and the interrogation filmed with CIA agent Spahn, in which Walker wouldn't talk or cooperate with American government interrogators, were staged CIA set-ups to maintain Walker's cover. Would the government delude the media to aid in a cover-up?

Maybe the only way to re-integrate Walker into Al Qaeda is to allow him to "escape" the American justice system. The man on the street wonders why the CIA can't infiltrate the Al Qaeda, if Walker can join up and even get a meeting with bin Laden. Did the American public expect that CIA operatives in Afghanistan would look like Men In Black?

Even in Pakistan, Walker was telling his friends in "the base" that he was from Ireland, to play down his American citizenship. Obviously, he was attempting to blend into the organization. If one were to develop an elaborate long-term plan to infiltrate Al Qaeda with CIA operatives, wouldn't an impressionable disillusioned youth, fluent in Arabic, apparently dedicating his life to Islam and the Taleban, be an ideal CIA operative if he could pull it off? Maybe he did. Many smart Americans would think that bin Laden couldn't be so easily duped ... all the while, believing themselves that Walker is a traitor.

Maybe Walker is much more valuable to the government if he eventually walks on all charges. Even if they have to retire him from active service, because his cover may have been compromised, it may be essential for the CIA to ensure that Walker's associates in Al Qaeda continue to believe that their security wasn't breached by association with Walker. A fair trail where he gets off on American constitutional legal technicalities, with an outraged public, may be the ultimate cover-up.

In Walker's only communication to his parents during his detention he told them not to worry, he couldn't say anything, but that he was safe in the custody of the American military. His parents wouldn't even know if he was a CIA operative.

The American public is generally very naive about the operations of the CIA. It's the CIA's core business to keep everyone in the dark about what they do and how they do it. They've done such a good job, over the years, the American public actually thinks they don't know anything. Perfect.

This may be too far fetched a conspiracy theory to believe. It's just easier to believe that the leaders elected and appointed to run the world's most powerful nation can't make the right decision what to do about Johnnie Walker.