Johnny Jihad’s Dream Team
My past with John Walker Lindh’s lawyer.

By Michael Ledeen, NRO contributing editor & resident scholar in the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute. He is author, most recently, of Tocqueville on American Character
January 28, 2002 8:45 a.m.

very now and then events conspire to produce a perfect match, and never did a defendant and his defense attorney deserve each other more than John Walker Lindh and John Brosnahan. Lindh, a.k.a. "Johnny Jihad," has drawn Brosnahan to defend him against the government's charges of, well, something just this side of treason, at least for the moment.

Most people probably don't remember that Brosnahan has been in Washington before, when he was a prosecutor for the celebrated Iran-Contra Special Prosecutor, Lawrence Walsh. I remember it better than most, because I was once called to testify by Brosnahan, and it was a memorable morning.

Brosnahan was a relatively late arrival to the Walsh team, and by the time he got there I had been told that I was no longer considered a "target" for criminal investigation. So when I was called, it was on the basis that they had found some new information about something or other, and they hoped I might be able to help them.

After discussing a bit of ancient history, Brosnahan got to the point. "Have you ever heard of a man named Bruce Rappaport?"

I had. A guy by that name had been involved in a scheme to build a gas or petroleum pipeline across Iraq, and that scheme had caused some heartburn for the former Attorney General Ed Meese. Was that the guy Brosnahan had in mind?

"Right. Also the person into whose bank account the famous $10 million dollars was misdirected by Oliver North's secretary, Fawn Hall."

That was news to me, and I thanked Brosnahan for the information.

"Do you know him?" Brosnahan continued.

"No," I said.

There was then an embarrassed silence, as Brosnahan and two associates shifted around in their chairs.

"Are you sure you don't know him?"

"Believe me," I said, "Swiss millionaires are not my social set."

More silence and shifting.

"Well, you know, he's supposed to be a big Zionist."

Which was the whole point. I'm Jewish, he's a big Zionist, so we must get together for conspiracy meetings from time to time, right?

"So?"

"So we thought you might know him."

That was pretty much the end of it. And as we walked back to our offices I asked my lawyer what she thought of that, and she said that if she hadn't actually been there she would never have believed it.

Which is why I think Johnny Jihad has the perfect lawyer. They've got a lot in common.