Walker expected to arrive in U.S.

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (CNN) -- John Walker, the American captured while fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan, is expected to arrive late Wednesday in the United States to face charges related to his alleged ties with the Taliban and terrorist groups.

FBI agents are accompanying Walker on the flight from Kandahar, Afghanistan, and the KC-10 cargo plane is expected to land at Washington-Dulles International Airport in Virginia, a U.S. government official said.

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Walker, 20, of California is expected to appear Thursday morning in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, a Washington suburb, the U.S. Marshals Service said. Criminal charges against Walker will be read at that initial court appearance, scheduled for 9 a.m. EST.

Details of his transfer and detention are being withheld as a security measure, officials said. Sheriff's deputies, federal marshals and other law enforcement officers are posted at Alexandria's Albert V. Bryan U.S. Courthouse. A federal law enforcement source said Walker will be housed overnight in an undisclosed jail under control of a local sheriff because there is no federal detention facility in northern Virginia.

Federal authorities often house defendants in national security cases in a high-security portion of the Alexandria detention facility, which is a few blocks from the courthouse.

Zacarias Moussaoui, a Frenchman of Moroccan descent who has been charged with conspiracy in the September 11 terrorist attacks, is being held at the jail.

Attorneys hired by family

Lawyers hired by Walker's family are in the Washington area and said they are trying to make arrangements for his parents to see their son "as soon as possible" after his arrival from Afghanistan, one of the attorneys said.

If Walker decides he doesn't want the lawyers his parents have hired, he will be assigned an attorney by the court.

Under new Justice Department guidelines, government officials can monitor any meetings between Walker and his parents.

Last week, the Justice Department filed criminal charges against Walker, alleging he chose to "embrace fanatics" who killed thousands of his countrymen.

Walker, who was imprisoned in November in Afghanistan with other Taliban fighters, was charged with four criminal counts: two counts of providing material support for resources to terrorist organizations, including al Qaeda; one count of engaging in a conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals abroad; and one count of engaging in transactions with the Taliban, the ousted Afghan regime.

If convicted, he could face life imprisonment.

Interview follows prison uprising

Walker was one of about 80 Taliban fighters who survived a bloody uprising among Taliban prisoners near Mazar-e Sharif in northern Afghanistan. The Northern Alliance put down the uprising with the aid of U.S. warplanes, but hundreds of prisoners and a CIA agent, Mike Spann, were killed.

Robert Young Pelton, the free-lance journalist who taped an interview for CNN with Walker shortly after the prison uprising, said he expects the young man will be surprised by how he is viewed in the United States.

"He doesn't feel he's done anything wrong," Pelton said. "Obviously he's about to get a wake-up call when he lands in Virginia."

Pelton, whose interview was cited by the Justice Department in its criminal complaint against Walker, said the young American could provide valuable, although limited, information.

"He had trained and he had fought with these people for over six months so obviously he knows the inner working of the al Qaeda network and he also knows the inner working of the Taliban -- but as a foot soldier," Pelton said.

"I don't consider him a high-ranking military person or a good intelligence source for what [Osama] bin Laden was doing," he added.