A hippie once told me, “You would love Marin County, California, man. The people there are far out!”

I had no idea how right he was.

Earlier this week, our forces in Afghanistan captured “Abdul Hamid,” among Taliban fighters who had been engaging in a prison riot at a northern alliance prison in Mazar-e-Sharif. The man identified himself as Hamid, but his real name is John Walker, a 20-year-old American originally from Fairfax, Calif.

Walker’s odyssey from Northern California to Mazar-e-Sharif goes like this — according to Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and John M. Glionna’s report in Tuesday’s Los Angeles Times: Raised a Roman Catholic, he converted to Islam at age 16 after reading “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” and then took to distributing pamphlets in the upper-class Marin County, where he spent his adolescent years, wearing traditional Muslim garb.

Upon graduating early from an alternative high school, he went to Yemen to study Arabic and learn more about his religion. Upon returning home from Yemen last year, he informed his parents he was headed to Bannu, Pakistan, to study with the Tablighi Jamaat movement, whose membership includes Yusef Islam, formerly known as singer-songwriter Cat Stevens.

The Jamaat movement largely has been considered peaceful and apolitical, however, some higher-ups in Pakistan are believed to have connections with radical organizations.

Walker regularly e-mailed his parents to inform them of what he was doing overseas. The last e-mail that his parents received from him stated that he was going to the mountains to get out of the summer heat.

In addition to Walker’s capture, two other Americans who were detained in the wake of the deadly prison riot also are in custody. Their names were not released.

Walker told a Newsweek reporter that he aligned himself with the Taliban after he met some of the original teachers of the movement.

“The ideas of the Taliban occupied my mind a lot,” Walker told the reporter, which was quoted in Kate Linebaugh’s Dec. 4 article in the Chicago Sun-Times, adding that the reason for his actions was to “help the Islamic government” because “the Taliban are the only government that actually provides Islamic law.”

Walker also said he endorsed the Sept. 11 attacks and last year’s attack on the U.S.S. Cole.

His parents think he’s been brainwashed. The Chicago Sun-Times thinks he’s a traitor. And we are not sure exactly what to do with him.

Currently, the military claims that his legal status is under review.

First of all, the Bush administration already has approved secret military tribunals in dealing with terrorists that were taken into custody during this war. But these tribunals only are limited to foreign citizens. Since Walker is a U.S. citizen he currently would not be tried by this tribunal.

Second, there is talk surfacing of trying Walker here at home on charges of treason. Yet some law professors say this will not be easy. Under the Constitution, the treasonous actions would have to be in full view of two eyewitnesses.

So what shall we do?

Before we even determine that it is essential to understand the unique position that Walker is in, we need to understand that as an American who fought with the enemy, Walker potentially can give us information regarding the inner-workings of the Taliban army, and possibly al Qaeda, that we would not be able to attain based on our own intelligence. He also could possibly provide information on other terrorist cells that we should worry about, not only in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but also their connections here in America.

Using that information, we may be able to create new avenues to use against the Taliban, and cut time and the amount of lives lost in our military action.

But more than that, we as a nation must develop a similar policy to that of the military tribunals that await non-U.S. residents.

If the U.S. is to properly address the terrorist issue, then it must determine what the status is of men such as Walker. And let us be clear, if we are to adopt the Bush Administration’s policy of “If you are not with us, you are against us,” then this applies not only to foreign citizens, but to American citizens who actively fight or harbor terrorists here on our shores.

Sept. 11 taught us that we are not immune from the scrounge of terrorism, both from citizens in other countries or our own. Let us take this new knowledge and apply it immediately.

This will be my final column as a Northern Star employee and as an NIU student. Rather than waste 20 inches of your time with the usual “last column” drivel (“What I have learned at NIU,” “Thank you to my friends and family,” “Take advantage of life,” etc.), I just thought I would let you know. All those who wish to get one last shot at me, better do it now.

Goodbye.