FROM U.S. TEEN TO TALIBAN FIGHTER.(MAIN)

Byline: RENE SANCHEZ Washington Post

LOS ANGELES -- Four years ago, a studious California teenager named John Philip Walker Lindh startled his middle-class Catholic parents by announcing that he was converting to Islam. A few days ago, he turned up on an Afghanistan battlefield as a bloodied Taliban fighter who called himself Abdul Hamid.

Bearded and bedraggled, with gunshot and grenade wounds, the 20-year-old told U.S. military officers and journalists that he had fought alongside the Taliban for months, until he and other fighters surrendered to Northern Alliance forces last week. He later identified himself to U.S. authorities as John Walker.

Two …