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Defense: Walker Lindh wanted to quit Taliban

Walker Lindh's trial is scheduled to begin August 26.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A "fear of death" prevented John Walker Lindh from leaving his Taliban unit after the September 11 attacks on the United States, his lawyers argued in court papers Friday.

Documents filed in a federal court in Virginia offered the first glimpse of the strategy Walker Lindh's attorneys plan to use against government claims that the 21-year-old Californian conspired to kill U.S. nationals. Walker is accused of joining Taliban and al Qaeda forces and continuing to ally himself with them after learning of the terrorist attacks on the United States.

Defense attorneys said the proof is contained in a government summary of interviews with Walker Lindh conducted in early December after his capture.

"The December summaries, for example, report that Mr. Lindh was obviously disillusioned when he learned of the attacks on the World Trade Center and wanted to leave his Taliban unit, but could not do so for fear of death," defense attorney George Lewis wrote in Friday's court filing.

"Yet the reports prepared in mid-January -- at a time when Mr. Lindh's case was the subject of frequent negative public commentary by government officials, intense media coverage and almost daily opinion polls -- omit references to these statements and attribute other statements to Mr. Lindh that do not appear in the more contemporaneous reports," the document continued.

In its discovery motion, Walker Lindh's lawyers ask to interview anyone who came into contact with their client after his capture,and demand all photographs taken of Walker Lindh while he was in custody, including souvenir photographs that might have been taken by soldiers.

They also filed a "bill of particulars" that asks the government to further explain with whom Walker Lindh allegedly entered into a conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals starting in May 2001, well before the September 11 attacks, as charged in the government's indictment.

Walker Lindh's trial is scheduled to begin August 26. He is charged with conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals; conspiracy to provide material support and resources to international terrorist organizations; providing material support and resources to international terrorist organizations; contributing services to al Qaeda; and using and carrying firearms and destructive devices during crimes of violence.

The charges carry three life terms and 90 additional years in prison.

In the 10-count indictment against Walker Lindh, the government says around June or July 2001, while Lindh was at a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, he learned that Osama bin Laden "had sent forth some 50 people to carry out 20 suicide terrorist operations against the United States or Israel."

Around that same time, Lindh "met personally with bin Laden, who thanked him and other trainees for taking part in jihad," the indictment alleges.